How to Make Yourself Hogwart's Number One Enemy
by DracoCorvus
Summary: When Lilly Evans and her best friend decide to take on the Marauders,the most powerful group in Hogwarts, they find themselves fighting a battle that just might be impossible to win...or not
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Okay, I've got a confession to make. I got the idea for the plot of this story from the Taiwanese drama Meteor Garden. If you've seen the show (which I suspect most of you probably haven't) then you'd understand why I had to write this. The story id just way too cute and it fits in perfectly with Hogwarts. So just to let you know- the basic plot line is taken from a show- though most of it comes from that insane place called my brain just a heads up. I hope you enjoy it!**

Chapter One: How to become an Enemy

"Red notice! Red notice! Jerry Thomson, 3rd year just received a red notice!" The cry rang from the hallway like a siren and on cue everybody stood up and filed out of the classroom. Everybody except for three girls, Lilly Evans, Sora Kaito, and Alice Catton (a new girl- transfer from Beauxbatons). Sora looked over at Lily and rolled her eyes.

"Here we go again" Sora said, her tone bored. Lilly just shook her head.

"This is the second one this week" Lilly stated disapprovingly "don't they ever get bored?" Sora just laughed at that comment.

"The Marauders, bored? Like that will happen" Sora said, getting up. "We better go" she added slightly. Lily nodded and stood up as well. The two girls were about to exit the room when Alice spoke up.

"Um, what's a red notice?" the girl asked. Sora and Lilly turned to her, looking startled.

"You don't know what a red notice is?" Sora asked, shocked. Alice shook her head.

"Well, you aren't going to like it" Lilly said, and Sora nodded her head in approval.

"We'll explain it to you on the way" Sora said, beckoning Alice to come with them. "They'll come after us if we don't show up" she added. Alice scampered behind the two girls like a lost puppy dog.

"Who'll come after you?" Alice asked as the trio stepped into the deserted hallway.

"The Marauders. They are the ones who hand out the red notices" Lilly said, disgust in her voice. Oh, how she hated those four boys.

"Are red notices good?" Alice asked, causing Sora to burst out into mirthless laughter.

"Red notices are a fate worse than death" Sora answered, shaking her head. "If you receive one that means that you've offended one of the Marauders somehow. The whole school follows the Marauders, so if you get a red notice you become one of the most hated people. Not to mention that you will also get a 'punishment' from the leader of the group" Sora said.

"Yeah, and the punishment is always something horribly humiliating" Lilly said, cringing at the thought of the last poor soul who received a red notice. She had left school the next day, never to return again.

"But who could have so much power over the school?' Alice cried.

"The Marauders all come from rather prominent pureblood families that have big names in the magical community. They also come from a long line of Hogwarts alumnus, who routinely give the school generous donations. Even the headmaster listens to what the boys say" Lilly said soberly. They reached the grand hall, where everybody was crammed in, surrounding an extremely frightened looking boy.

Alice looked at the scene and her eyes widened, in horror or wonder, Lilly couldn't tell. She looked over at Sora, but her best friend's gaze was set firmly on poor little Jerry, a look of disgust on her face. Sora had always been the stronger of the two friends. Her father, a half Italian and half Japanese business mogul, was one of the richest men in the eastern hemisphere, but Sora never showed her wealth. Instead she got her personality from her mother, a full blooded Irish woman, and was stubborn, bold, and as loyal as could be. Lilly loved Sora, but she knew that her friend was a bit rash and she was always worried about her.

"Sora, hold yourself" Lilly whispered to the girl.

"But it's so awful- I know Jerry!" Sora said miserably. Lilly nodded. Jerry was in the same year as they were (though he was a Hufflepuff and Sora and Lilly were Gryffindors) and he shared their potions class. Sora, Lilly, and Jerry were rather good friends and Lily hated seeing this happen to him just as much as Sora did.

"Ohh, look" Alice crooned, looking at the entrance. Sora and Lilly turned around to see four boys standing there, looking as commanding as ever.

"The Marauders" Sora spat through her teeth, uttering the word like it was a curse.

"What are their names?" Alice asked, her eyes still set on the boys. Lilly looked at them too, though her eyes were filled more with hatred than with wonder.

"There is Remus Lupin" Lily said, pointing to the boy on the far right. "His family runs a business out of Kent. He's usually very quiet, but they say that he is a cunning as a fox and very smart too. He's very secretive and doesn't ever talk to anybody. His nickname is Moony" Lilly said.

"Why is he called Moony?" Alice asked and Lily just shrugged. "They gave themselves nicknames- we don't know why" Lilly answered. She then pointed to the boy on the far left.

"His name is Peter Pettigrew. His nickname is Wormtail. His family is an old aristocratic group that lives in a fancy little manor outside of London. He is the group's little henchman. Whatever the other members tell him to do, he does. People say it's because he's loyal, but Sora and I just think he's daft." Lilly said, causing a little giggle from Alice and a nod of approval from Sora.

"Right next to Peter is Sirius Black. His nickname is Padfoot He is the soul heir to the Black family- I'm sure you've heard of them. They are a rich, pureblood, evil lot. Sirius isn't exactly as dark as the rest of the Black family, but he loves to play practical jokes and had a twisted sense of humor. He is also a known womanizer. He is the right hand man and best friend of James." Lilly said.

"James?" Alice asked. Lilly frowned a bit.

"James Potter, the 'leader' of the Marauders. His nickname is Prongs. His family is a very rich one, runs a successful business in London. His manor is colossal and he's heir to a rather intimidating fortune. But he's a bastard and he's ruthless. He gets what he wants when he wants it, and he doesn't take no for an answer. I hate him the most." Lilly said and Sora nodded.

"Though Sirius is a huge pain as well" Sora added. She had always hated him quite a bit.

The three girls watched as the Marauders slowly walked towards Jerry. They were an awe-inspiring group, good looking and wonderful in their perfectly spotless school robes. And even though they were ruthless, almost every girl in school had a crush on at least one of them. Everybody except for Sora and Lily, that is, but those two were almost always the exception to every rule.

The Marauders stepped up to Jerry and stopped about two feet away from him. James stepped forward and glanced at the shaking boy.

"Hello Jerry" James said, his voice soft with a clipped accent. Jerry quacked and looked as pale as death.

"I…I don't know what I did sir" Jerry said, addressing James as though he was a professor and not his fellow classmate.

"You don't know what you did" James said, chuckling slightly. "Perhaps I should enlighten you" he said with a tone of voice that sounded as though he was just having a pleasant conversation.

"Yesterday I was in a bit of a hurry to get to herbology" James said lightly "And guess who stepped in my path- making me have to stall for a few seconds and caused me to be almost late for class" he finished, looking down at Jerry with malice. Sora flamed up.

"He gave Jerry a red notice because he accidentally stepped in front of him? Of all the lousy, pathetic things to do!" she whispered harshly to Lilly and Alice. The two girls nodded.

"So now we have to punish you, don't we Master Jerry?" James continued, saying the word master in a way that made it sound like the worst of insults. Jerry looked even more frightened than before. From the folds of his robes, James pulled out a rather tattered brown book. Jerry's eyes fell on it and he looked as though he was about to faint.

"What's the matter Jerry? Can't even recognize your own diary? Though I must say, I thought diaries were only for girls" James said quietly. "I was going to plaster the school walls with its pages, but I thought the whole school would like me to read it out to them first" James said, smiling coolly. "It is a rather interesting read. I'm sure Professor Torres would love to hear the things you wrote about her. She'll be very flattered to hear what you think of her." James said. Jerry looked like a deer caught in headlights.

"What did you say she was?" James said, opening the book. "Oh yes, 'she's as beautiful as a full blooming rose'" he said, raising his eyebrows. Jerry turned a rather violent shade of red as the crowd of students started to laugh.

"But that wasn't even the best part" James said addressing the crowd. He turned the page and was about to read when he was stopped by a rather familiar voice.

**"You heartless bastard!"**

The whole crowd turned and looked at the interrupter. Lilly groaned as she saw Sora stride up to James. Why didn't that girl ever keep her mouth closed?

Sora walked up to James, her cheeks red with anger and her bright blue eyes flashing. She was usually a rather stunning girl, and when she was angry she looked like the angel of death in her black robes.

"Excuse me?" James said, looking a bit startled. The rest of the Marauders looked even more shocked.

"I said that you were a heartless bastard" Sora said simply, looking up at James. Her voice, to Lilly's amazement, didn't even shake one bit.

James looked at Sora as though she was an alien. Alice glanced wildly at Lilly, asking her whether this was normal or not- but Lilly was too frightened to answer. What would James, and the rest of the Marauders, do to Sora?

"I don't think you quite meant that" James said, his voice losing its tone of surprise and gliding back into its usual malice.

"Oh, but I do" Sora said "you're a bastard and a coward who lacks the ability or intelligence to take care if normal problems by himself and has to revert to humiliation to make up for his lack of skills" she added. Lilly couldn't help but think that it was the most truthful thing anybody had said about James ever. Everybody in the crowd collectively held their breaths, waiting to see what James would do. James strode up to Sora and looked her straight in the eye. Sora stood up tall and returned James's gaze. She looked fearless, but Lilly could tell by the way that she was clenching her fists at her side that Sora was actually nervous. No one had ever stood up to James before ever.

"You're dead Kaito" James said coolly. Sora smiled at him.

"I'm flattered you know my name" she replied coolly, her words dripping with sarcasm.

Lily knew that things would get very ugly now, and she felt the need to protect her friend. After all, Sora had been there to beat up any bullies that Lilly every had- and it was only fair for Lilly to stand by her friends side at all times.

"If I die- make sure to tell my family that I love them. Well, except for Petunia. Tell her I think she looks like a toad" Lily whispered to Alice before swallowing hard and stepping up.

"She's right, you know" Lily cried, making James, the rest of the Marauders, and the whole crowd turn towards her.

"What?" James asked her.

"Sora- everything she said is right. You're a heartless bastard and a coward" Lily said, forcing every word to come out. She was petrified, horrified in fact, by what she had just done. But Sora was her best friend- and Lily had always said her best quality was loyalness.

James just stared at Lilly for awhile and then glanced back at Sora, who gave Lilly a gaze of pure thankfulness. Suddenly James motioned to the rest of the Marauders and they all swept out of the grand hall. Sirius gave Sora and Lilly an almost admiring look as he passed by.

The whole grand hall was pin drop silent after the Marauders had left. They all stared at Sora and Lilly as though they were Martians. The only sound came from Jerry, who was sobbing in relief and looking at the two girls like they were goddesses. Sora and Lilly looked at each other, nodded slightly, and ran out of the hall into their common room.

The rest of the day everybody treated the two girls like they were poison. They all kept their distance in fear of the Marauders. Even Alice didn't go that near the two girls and when ever they tried to talk to her, her answers were very short and clipped.

By the end of the day, Sora and Lilly were more frustrated than afraid. They went to bed early and slept quite deeply for two girls who had just stood up against the most powerful boy in school.

The next morning Lilly was awoken to Sora's startled laughter. Opening her groggy eyes, Lilly peered over at her friend, who was sitting up in her bed.

"What's up?" Lilly asked. Sora just shook her head and pointed to something on the post of her bed. Lilly sprang up and looked at her own bedpost. Suddenly her stomach felt like lead and she was overcome with shivers.

On her bedpost, as well as on Sora's, was taped a single piece of crimson paper. A red notice….

**A/N: So what do you think? Please Review and tell me how you like (or dislike) the story so far.**


	2. A Declaration of War

**A/N: We'll here's the next chapter, please read and review. Enjoy!**

**Chapter Two: A Declaration of War**

"I don't see how you can be amused in a situation like this!" Lilly whispered furiously to Sora as the girls rushed into the great hall. Sora just shook her head and laughed.

"It was so obvious that this was going to happen. We yelled at them in front of the whole bloody school! I just thought that they would be a bit more clever and think of a better plan than just giving us red notices" Sora answered as they swept into the hall. The dull thunder of footsteps sounded in the background as the Hogwarts students all made their way to the great hall to see the punishment of Sora and Lilly.

Lilly shook her head and looked at Sora in fear. "But their punishment is bound to be awful!" she wailed. Lilly had seen what James had done to people in the past- and he was twice as mad at her and Sora than he was at any of the other red notice recipients.

"We can take whatever he gives" Sora said, but Lilly could hear a slight crack in her friend's voice- which made her all the more scared. If rough and tough Sora was frightened, things were bad.

Slowly all the students filed into the hall, sneering and glaring at the two girls. Lilly groaned. She knew that this would be completely awful. How did she let Sora get her into these situations? If that girl didn't open her big mouth than both of them could have been okay and happy, eating cornflakes and gossiping. But no- that would be too normal for Lilly and Sora. Instead, they had to be standing in the middle of the great hall, surrounded by angry students, waiting to be punished by the most ruthless boy in school.

"I hate you" Lilly said to Sora, causing her friend to emit a sudden laugh.

"Glad to know I have your support, Lills" Sora replied, grinning broadly. Lilly just shook her head, wondering when the Marauders were going to arrive.

"I really wish that they would get here soon. There's no point in making us wait for long" Sora said to Lilly.

And as though on cue- as soon as Sora finished her sentence four boys stood silhouetted in the entrance way. Lilly's heart jumped a beat and se felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. This was it- her last moments in Hogwarts.

The boys moved slowly towards the center of the hall, their movements fluid and graceful. Watching them walk was like watching art in motion- but Lilly was too scared to even notice the picturesque refinement of the Marauders movements.

The group stopped in front of Sora and Lilly and James stepped out- looking at the two girls with eyebrows raised.

"So you think that it was amusing to mock me?" James asked.

"Pretty much" Sora answered, her voice becoming cool and hard. James glared at her.

"Well my friends found it rather horrible, you know" James said evenly "It's terrible to watch a friend get insulted- wouldn't you say?" James asked and Peter nodded his head rather furiously as though he was trying to prove James's point. Sora just thought it made him look like he was having seizers.

"What goes around comes around" James said softly as he snapped his fingers. Suddenly two rather large looking boys came, holding a struggling Alice Catton. Sora and Lilly glanced at each other in horror.

"She didn't do anything wrong- it was us!" Lilly said. James just sneered at her.

"Yes, but it is poor Miss Catton who will have to pay the price of your mistake" James said, taking out his wand and putting a spell on Alice that kept her bound to her spot.

"Why don't you just punish us instead?" Sora asked, her eyes shining with hatred. James barely glanced at her.

"Why, that wouldn't make quiet the same impression, now would it?" James asked. Lilly felt sick to her stomach. Alice was the new girl- she hadn't made any mistake except for befriending her and Sora.

James walked over to Alice and smiled at her.

"Now what can I do to you Miss Catton, that would humiliate you completely?" James asked her. Alice's eyes widened in fear and tears started to trickle down her cheeks.

"Maybe I should…"

**"Stop IT!"**

James's sentence was cut by a shaking voice. Everybody's heads turned to find a very shaking, very angry looking Lilly. Sora looked at her friend, stunned. Usually Lilly was the quiet one, the one who kept her thoughts to herself.

"Lilly…" Sora began but was quieted by a sharp glance from her friend. Lilly walked up to James and glared at him.

"You little arrogant jerk" Lilly spat, her voice shaking with fury. "Does it amuse you to torture innocent people? Do you find joy in the pain of other's? What would you know about humiliation or hurt? You're immune to all human emotions, a spoiled little prince who thinks the world is at his disposal" Lilly said. James looked at the redhead before him in amazement.

"Don't be so full of yourself!" Lilly cried and punched James square in the jaw, causing him to stumble back a bit. Shaking Lilly returned to Sora.

"Oh god what did I just do?" she whispered to her friend, who was looking at her like she just lost her mind.

"You, mate, just punched James Potter" Sora replied with admiration. Lilly felt as though she was going to throw up. She just punched James Potter!

Lilly spun around just in time to see James speeding towards her, his eyes flashing and violent. Lilly knew that he was going to hit her back- we certainly wasn't the type to not hit a lady. Lilly also knew that she couldn't defend herself against an enraged James. Helplessly she put her harms in front of her face.

But just before James reached Lilly, Sora deftly spun around and hit James right in the gut, causing him to loose his breath and fall to the floor. Lilly looked at the friend with eyes wide open. Sora returned Lilly's gaze and shrugged.

"What was I supposed to do, watch him beat you up?" Sora asked. Lilly was suddenly filled with love for her best friend and confidence. She strode up to James, who was still on the floor.

"James Potter, you will not make me run away or fear you any longer" Lilly said confidently. "I officially declare war on you!" she said. The silence that followed that statement was almost deafening.

Sirius was finally the one to break the silence. He looked up at Sora and raised his eyebrows.

"What about you- do you declare war as well?" he asked her, sounding rather amused. Sora looked over Lilly and smiled.

"Every war general needs a partner in crime" she said. Lilly returned Sora's smile.

"Fine then- if that is what you want" James said weakly as he stood up. He glared at the two girls and swept out of the hall. The rest of the Marauders left the hall as well and the other students followed in suit- trying not to make eye contact with the two girls. Even Alice (whom was released from her bind) ran out of the hall like a scared dog. Soon only Lilly and Sora were left in the hall.

"There's no point in going to classes today. All the teachers were here and I know they won't expect us to be in class right now" Lilly said. Sora nodded. Both of the girls just looked at each other for a moment and then burst out laughing.

"Well I guess we have started the first ever blown out war in Hogwarts" Sora said, smiling broadly.

"Should we go back to the common room and make war plans?" Lilly asked, looking very amused.

"You go ahead and start those. I have somewhere I need to go first" Sora said, sobering a bit. Lilly just nodded and Sora started to walk out of the hall. "I'll be up in a minute" Sora cried to her friend as she walked out into the hallway.

Sora turned the corner and made her way to the astronomy tower, climbing the endless staircase up to the highest point. Everything that had happened that day weighed down on her. God, in less than two days she and Lilly had become Hogwarts's most hated enemies. It was a bit much for her to swallow.

Sora reached the top of the stairs and walked out onto the balcony. It was a pretty, little place, comprised of two sections separated by a half wall, so that a person could access both sides of the balcony in needed. She went over to the rails and looked out at the school grounds stretch out around her. This was her secret place- the place where she went to vent whenever she needed to.

"I don't know what I just did" Sora said, shaking her head. "I know I was stupid and rash, but I just hate the Marauders so much! I hate their stuck up ways, their arrogance, their stupidity, and their utter superiority. They aren't better than anybody else!" she continued. It felt good to get the things off her chest.

"And I know that Lilly will be regretting this whole war situation in a few hours and that it will be up to me to carry out our threat. And though I am stronger than many others, I also have my limits. I can't take out the Marauders by myself!" she cried out.

Suddenly from the other side of the wall Sora heard a noise. She looked over suddenly to see Sirius standing up on the other side, a book in his hand and a surprised expression on his face.

"I thought I recognized the voice" Sirius said. Sora's hand instinctively went to her wand.

"What are you doing here?" she asked him. Sirius looked at her with amusement.

"I came up here to find some peace. This is my place- has been since the first year" he said. Sora didn't really have any strength left to argue with him.

"Fine then, I'll leave" Sora said, moving towards the staircase.

"No, it's okay- I'll go" Sirius said, closing his book and walking away. Sora had expected this scenario to be a bit more violent- but she wasn't complaining.

"Thanks" Sora said to Sirius's retreating figure. Sirius turned around and looked at her.

"I'm not doing this because I'm kind. I'm doing this because I hate all of this" he said. Sora looked at him with a bewildered expression, but he just turned back around and walked away.

Hated all of this? All of what? The war? Sora couldn't guess and finally just decided that it was just Sirius's way of telling her that he hated her guts. It made sense, yet still the statement still nagged at her. Sora looked out at the grounds once more and sighed. It was battle time.

Slowly she went to the staircase and began to climb back down, planning on heading down to the common room. She and Lilly had a lot of plans to make…


	3. From the other side of hell

**A/N: Okay here's chapter three- enjoy!**

**Chapter Three: From the other side of hell**

Lilly and Sora had slept early again the night before. Their battle plans hadn't been much of a success and after four hours of randomly spurting out crazy, nonsensical ideas, the two girls were left just cranky and exasperated. The next morning they really weren't any better. Both of them got ready in silence, under the hostile stares of their roommates. In two days Sora and Lilly had gone from being good natured Gryffindors to hated enemies of all. It was a bit unnerving, really.

Silently the two girls left the common room and made their way down the hall, trying to act as though nothing was out of the ordinary- like they were just going to get some breakfast like they always did. But, no matter how hard they tried they couldn't seem to get rid of the dull cloud that was hanging over this.

"This is horrible" Lilly muttered finally, breaking the silence between the girls. Sora looked over at her and shook her head.

"Hey, whose idea was this war in the first place?" Sora asked.

"Don't remind me" Lilly said, groaning. She already felt like the biggest idiot in the world for what she had done yesterday. It had never been like her to be rash- but she managed to be just that at the totally wrong moment. It was like her mind hated her.

"So what do you think they have planned for us?" Sora asked Lilly, who just shrugged her shoulders. God only knew what the Marauders would have up their sleeves. Nobody had raged war on them before- so Lilly took comfort in knowing that at least the four boys would be just as novice to this whole situation as she and Sora were.

The two girls turned the corners and walked straight into four rather large seventh years. Sora and Lilly exchanged worried glances and then looked up at the four.

"Can we help you?" Sora asked. She had seen these boys in the hallway before. They were part of some gang; she knew that, a rather violent gang if she remembered correctly.

"The Marauders would like to see you" The boys said.

"Right now?" Lilly asked. She was surprised that the Marauders didn't come to get them in person. But then again, it was typical rich boy behavior- get other people to do your work for you.

"Of course right now" The biggest of the boys said, reaching out to the two girls. Sora, sensing danger, tried to duck, but the boy caught her arm in a deadlock. She turned her head towards Lilly, whose arm was also captured by the boy.

"What's going on?" Lilly demanded. The boy just looked at her and laughed. Then everything went dark.

* * *

The first thing that Sora noticed when she woke up was that it was it was dark. She was in some sort of odd room, one that she didn't recognize. Turning around she saw Lilly beside her; or more correctly a more dolled up version of Lilly. Getting up slowly she saw she was on a white lounge chair. Her head hurt mercifully, and she hit her hand against it –trying to get her brain to work. What had just happened to her?

Suddenly there was a noise beside her and she turned to see that Lilly too had arisen, looking equally as confused. Both of the girls looked at each other for a second before the events of that morning came back to them.

"My god" Lilly whispered.

"We were kidnapped" Sora said at the exact same time.

"Well aren't we smart?" a familiar voice said from behind them. Sora and Lilly whirled around to see James Potter, sitting in a large white chair with Sirius standing beside him. James had a very triumphant expression on his face while Sirius just looked plain bored.

"What did you do to us?" Lilly asked James, her voice quavering. God knows what could have happened to them while they were knocked out.

"Look in the mirror" James said, waving his wand and producing a very large mirror. Both the girls looked at it hesitantly, a bit afraid of what they would see. But they didn't have to worry.

Staring back at them was a prettier version of themselves. Their hair had been styled, their clothes were brand new and very expensive looking, and they each had on a boatload of jewelry.

Lilly looked at herself flabbergasted. She was almost blinded by the size and sparkle of the diamonds hanging from her neck, but she was a bit worried by them at the same time. What was James trying to do to? He couldn't have bestowed them with all these things out of the kindness of his heart.

"What is all of this?" Lilly asked James. James looked at her and smiled condescendingly, the way rich snobs usually did when they were addressing people of a "lower level".

"I spent 100,000 pounds on each of you" James said flatly. Lilly's eyes went wide. 200,000 pounds total! She had never seen somebody throw away that kind of money before! Her own house didn't even cost that much.

"Why?' Lilly asked her voice strained. Beside her, Sora looked perplexed but not the least bit worried.

"Total hair and makeup, new clothes, jewelry- it all adds up" James said, his tone not changing one bit. Lilly looked at him with a mix of suspicion and surprise.

"You had us kidnapped to give us a makeover?" Lilly asked. James nodded, causing Sora to give off a small laugh. Even Lilly had to admit that this whole situation was more than a bit odd.

"Are you two gay?' Sora asked James and Sirius. James looked outraged and Sirius made an odd noise, a mix of something between humor and indignation.

"No, sorry to disappoint you" Sirius said, answering for James. Lilly just shook her head at her friend's brashness.

"Then what are you trying to do- run us into debt?" Lilly asked. That was probably what was going on. James would make her and Sora pay him back for all the money he had spent on them and Lilly and her family would go into horrible debt. Lilly felt her stomach drop. Her family shouldn't have to pay for her mistake.

"If that is your plan- it won't work" Sora said plainly. "I'll pay for both Lilly and my share, it's no problem. You'll have to try harder than that" Sora said, sounding bored. Lilly looked up at her friend, gratitude shining clearly in her eyes.

"No, I am not trying to run either of you into debt" James said lightly, causing Lilly to worry all over again. If it wasn't debt, then what was it?

"I've actually decided to make you two an offer" James continued, causing both girls to narrow their eyes in suspicion at him.

"What type of offer?" Lilly asked James, wondering what his offer had anything to do with the absurd makeover her and Sora had just received. James leaned back in his seat and smiled at the two girls.

"What I have just given you two is only the beginning." James said quietly "if you surrender and crown us victors of this little war, I will personally make sure that you two have everything that you could desire" he continued, gazing right at Lilly. "Evans, I can buy your family a new house in a better neighborhood. I can make your dad's restaurant the most popular in all of England. I can help your mother launch her sewing business and pay for your sister's schooling completely" he said. Lilly balked. How did he know all of this stuff about her family? And was he being serious about helping them out so much.

James saw Lilly's surprised expression and smiled. It seemed as though his plan was working. He then turned to Sora.

"And you, Kaito; I hear that our parents are trying to merge their businesses. I can make sure that will happen. And also- I personally know the most talented healer in the entire northern hemisphere, quite possibly the world. And I am sure that he could be able to help your brother out. All you need to do is surrender and I'll make sure everything in your life is perfect." He said, knowing that he had struck a chord with the seemingly unshakable girl. Sora's eyes widened as James mentioned her brother. She knew that he had done a backup check on both her and Lilly, but she never thought that he would stoop this low. Sora shook her head and looked up at James, disgusted.

"I don't know what you think of me, Potter" Sora said, her voice filled with hate and pain. "You might think that you can use Yu as a bargaining chip- but he has more pride than that- I have more pride that that. How could you even think to use my brother's illness to buy me over? That's low- even for a scumbag like you" she finished. James looked at Sora, surprised. He had expected the girl to jump at the notion of getting her brother healed.

Lilly looked over at Sora and instantly felt rage for James. Did he really think that they were so easily bribed?

"James Potter, I don't know who you think you are? Don't you know that you can't buy our surrender?" Lilly asked him. James just shook his head.

"If there is one thing I learned in life Evans, it's that anything can be bought" he answered her.

"Well not us" Lilly said, taking off her necklace and bracelet, throwing it on the ground in front of her and storming out the door. Sora, too took off her jewelry, though she laid it neatly on the couch.

"Return your precious jewelry- it won't do us any good" Sora said, giving James and Sirius a look of utter hate and following Lilly right out of the room.

Once she was outside, Sora saw that they had just been in the room of requirement. No wonder she hadn't recognized it. Turning her head, she saw Lilly waiting for her. She walked over to her friend and shook her head.

"Well that was just a complete waste of a day" Lilly said.

"Like we don't have anything better to do with our lives than get made over" Sora added, picking up a strand of her curled hair and frowning at it.

"Though I do have to say- I don't think we've ever looked better" Lilly said, checking out her reflection in the mirror.

"Lilly Evans- I can't believe that you just said that! So much for not being able to be bought over!" Sora said with a tone of mock anger. Lilly just shook her head and laughed. The two girls walked down the hallway, actually feeling good for once since this whole escapade had started.

"How much makeup work do you think we'll have to do?' Lilly asked as they walked back to the common room.

"I don't even want to know" Sora answered.

* * *

Back in the room of requirement, James still sat in his chair, looking at the jewelry lying at his feet. His expression was completely unreadable, but his mind was racing.

"Do you think she meant it?" James asked. Sirius looked down at his friend.

"Meant what?" he asked. Today had not gone how James had wanted it to have gone, and Sirius knew that when James didn't get what he wanted things got very ugly.

"That she couldn't be bought over?' James asked. For some reason he didn't look angry, just rather surprised.

"I actually do think she meant it" Sirius answered, knowing that it was the truth. He had never seen two girls exactly like Sora and Lilly. They were filled with a sort of courage and spontaneity that was rare to come by. Though they were a bit stupid- taking on the marauders and all. But Sirius, and it seemed James as well, did admire the girls a bit- just a bit.

James looked up at Sirius and smiled.

"Well, you know what this means, mate" James said, raising one eyebrow up at Sirius. His looked at him incredulously.

"You can't possibly be thinking about it" Sirius said. James just smiled at him and nodded.

"Actually I did more than just think about it. Everything is in place" James said. Sirius shook his head. Now, this is where the real fight would begin.

"Are you sure you have to?" Sirius asked his friend.

"Of course I'm sure. Time to activate Plan B" James answered, smiling a bit evilly. This was going to be fun.


	4. All's fair in Love and War

**A/N: Okay, loves, I am really, really sorry for not writing in such a long time! Life has been bogging me down lately, what with trying to send off my college applications for early admission and trying to juggle about a billion and five AP classes without exploding. But I'm back again, and I brought a very suprising chapter along with me. Enjoy!**

Lilly and Sora walked down the hallway, not saying anything to each other. An odd silence filled the long corridors as the two girls slowly walked through them. Neither girl knew what to say to the other- what had just happened was too odd to put in words. Finally, Sora looked up at her best friend. She took in Lily's newly styled hair and makeup and felt a smile tug at her lips. Lily felt Sora's gaze and looked up as well, taking in her friend's new look. Both girls stopped walking and just started at each other for a bit. All of the sudden, both girls erupted into peals of laughter, the rich sound of it echoing in the empty hall.

Sora looked up at Lily through teary eyes and shook her head.

"That was the worst attempt yet" she said, her voice breathless from laughing. Lilly nodded her head in agreement.

"I think they're slipping" Lily said, looking at her newly manicured nails "though I do have to say, this makeover was rather nice" she added, smiling brightly.

"Yes, it's all the rage in war now- make your enemies look as good as the possibly can" Sora added, causing Lily to laugh all over again.

"Let's go celebrate" Lily said brightly- she didn't care about missing classes anymore; she was already too behind to bother.

"Sure- I've just got to send a letter home real quick. I'll meet you in the common room" Sora said, turning towards the doors leading to the owlery. Lily said goodbye to her and walked towards the direction of the common room, not thinking about where she was going. When she finally stopped walking she found herself in front if the astronomy tower. Not really wanting to go back to the common room yet, Lily decided to climb the endless flight of stairs to the top. She hadn't been up there since her first year when she had taken a completely useless astronomy class. Lily hated the subject, all full of guesswork and predictions- too much like boring divination. Sora on the other hand, loved both subjects and Lily knew that she went to the astronomy tower often, just to calm herself.

Lily was out of breath by the time she reached the top of the tower, and she grasped the balcony ledge, bending her head, gasping for air.

"A little out of shape, are we?" a familiar voice sounded next to her. Lily spun around to what she had thought was just a wall, but had turned out to be a little divider between the two sections of the tower. Standing on the other side, looking extremely handsome and surprisingly normal, stood Sirius Black. Lily immediately went on guard. After what had happened today, Lily didn't really know what to expect.

Sirius, on the other hand, just went continuing to read a book that he had brought with him. Lily craned her neck and saw that it was a tour book of the United States. Suddenly Sirius looked up at Lily.

"What is the time difference between London and New York?" he asked Lily, who was quite taken by surprise at the random question.

"Um, six hours, I believe" she answered quickly. She didn't know where this conversation was going, but she wasn't about to let herself get off guard.

"Right, thanks" Sirius said, turning around and walking away. Lily stared at the boy's receding back, a bemused expression on her face. Her mind reeled. What had just happened there? Was Sirius trying to give her some time of hidden, veiled threat? Or had she just had an almost normal conversation with one of the marauders? After a few minutes, Lily realized that she was still standing on top of the astronomy tower and that Sora was probably already back in the common room. Lily rushed down the stairs and back to the common room, where Sora was sitting in front of the fire, a hearty feast (nicked from the kitchens, naturally) set in front of her.

"Oh, good you're here! I just came back from the kitch. It seem as though the house elves are rather happy with our war. They aren't the biggest fans of the marauders, either" she said, smiling. She didn't question Lily about where she had been, and Lily didn't tell her about it either. For some reason, Lily didn't want to share what had happened with Sora, at least not yet.

The two girls spent the rest of the day lounging by the fire, gossiping, and eating. They went to bed early and slept well. When Lily woke up the next morning, though, everything seemed off balance.

She noticed that Sora wasn't in her bed, even though her friend always woke up later than she did. She also noticed that the dormitory seemed rather empty- nobody was there. Looking wildly around, Lily noticed that there was a single piece of crimson paper taped to her bedpost.

"Here we go again" Lily groaned, getting out of bed and putting on her school robe. She wondered where Sora was, and hoped that James hadn't done anything to her- not that he really could. Sora's uncle was the founder and head master of the largest martial arts dojo in Japan and had taught his niece martial arts since she was old enough to stand up on her own. If there was any girl who could take care of herself, it was Sora.

Lily rushed to the great hall, wondering what in the world James had in store for her. She was received with a large, jeering crowd. Ignoring everybody's comments, Lily made her way to the center of the room when she saw the most odd and unexpected sights she could ever imagine.

Standing in the center of the great hall was James and Peter (Sirius and Remus were missing). Next to James, unconscious and bound at the wrists was Lily's younger sister, Petunia.

"How, how…" Lilly stammered, not really believing the sight in front of her. Petunia- in her school! How in the world had the headmaster allowed James to bring in an ordinary person into a magical school!

"Shocked, Evans?" James said, smiling "I knew you would be. Getting your little sister here wasn't to hard really. I just had my mum's men place a simple spell on her and poof! Here she came" James added. Lily stared at him- wondering why anybody on the earth would be so sadistic.

"What has Petunia ever done?" Lily asked James "and it's not like I even talk to her that often" she added. The sad part was that it was true. The two sisters did not have that great of a relationship with each other, but Lily still cared about her sister greatly.

"It's not a matter of what she has done to me- it's a matter of what _you've_ done to me" James said lightly. "I tried to resolve our differences nicely- but you and that little pest of a friend of yours did not agree" James added. "If we are actually going to go on with this war, I thought I would start it off with a bang" James said, smiling at the shocked Lily in front of him. Suddenly, the boy snapped his fingers and two people from the crowd brought him a huge bucket of shining purple ink.

"Wonko's Permanent Ink" James said, smiling quite evily at Lily. "It will dye anything it touches a lovely shade of violet. And the best part is, that it will never come off" he said, his voice soft and light. "I wonder how your little sister would look in purple" James taunted, casting his eyes on the limp Petunia. The boy who had handed James the bucket of ink gave him a paint brush. James dipped the paintbrush in ink and made his way towards Petunia. Lily, acting on pure instinct, ran up to james and slapped the paintbrush out of his hands. The brush landed with a loud clank on the floor below, echoing throughout the painfully silent hall.

James looked at the paintbrish lying at his feet and then back at Lily. A slow, wide smile crept onto the boy's lips and Lily felt a sinking feeling in her stoumach. James only smiled at other's pain and discomfert.

'Bend down and pick it up" James said pleasantly. Lily looked at the paint brush at the boy's feet. If she bent over to retrieve it, it would be like bowing at Jame's feet and accepting surrender.

"I will not" Lily said, looking straight at james- the daggers of her emerald eyes meeting the cold harshness of his hazel ones. James just shook his head slightly.

"If you do not pick up the brush, I will be forced to dumo this bucket of ink not only on your sister, but also on you" James said, chuckiling. Lily heard a murmer going through the crowd. Everybody was wondering if this would be the end of the much coverted Hogwarts War.

Lily bowed her head, knowing that she had been defeated. There was nothing she could do now. As much as she hated James she knew that she couldn't go through her life being purple, nor could she live with herself if she was the cause of her sister being permanently dyed either. James might not have any morals, but Lily did and she knew that that was her downfall. You can't fight with the devil, he has nothing to lose. Tears pricked Lily's eyes. She had wanted so bad to win this war, to stick it in Jame's face and bring him down! But there was nothing that she could do, especially when Sora wasn't there to help her.

Lily was about to bend down to pick up the brush and give up on the whole war when she was stopped by a familiar voice.

"Actually, Evans, the time differance is seven hours, you forgot to count the idiotic daylight savings time they have in the US."

Lily looked up and saw Sirius standing not too far away from her, looking exceedingly gorgeous in his tailored emerald green robes (none of the marauders usually wore school robes). he looked at lily and winked slightly, causing the girl to blush to her roots. Suddenly there was a great racket at the doorway to the great hall. Lily's eyes swung from Sirius to the cause of the noise.

In the doorway stood two huge boys, one of them holding a kicking and seething Sora. Both of the boys were bruised and scratched and had the air of soldiers who had just lost a long battle.

"We can't keep her anymore James- she's a hellion. It's been nothing but trouble for us since we took her" One of the boys said, dropping Sora on the floor. Sora immediatly got up, kicked the boy in a place where she was sure would hurt for hours and swiftly made her way through thr rapidly parting crowd to Lily's side.

"What did I miss, love?" Sora asked Lily. James looked at Sora, to the two beaten up boys, and then finally to Sirius. His mouth was set in a thin frown and his eyes turned cold when they fell upon who he thought was his best friend. He stromed out of the great hall, his eyes only tearing away from Sirius when he went through the dorrway. Peter scampered after James, like a little rat. Sora looked at Lily, who was looking around her in shock.

"Lily? What happened?" Sora asked. Lily, though, didn't answer. Lily didn't know quite what happened either, but she did know one thing for sure. She was in love with Sirius Black.

**A/N: Okay, so how's that for a twist? Hehe, stay tuned dear readers- thr next chapter is going to get even hotter... **


	5. A Twist and a Splash

**A/N: Okay, so this chapter is a bit long, but I like it. It took me a while to complete, so I hope that you guys like it! Please review- your thoughts and comments are what keep this story alive!**

Lily and Sora became instant celebrities in Hogwarts after the whole "Petunia Incident" (as it was known to the student body from then on). Suddenly the two girls went from being the most hated girls in the school to the most beloved. Nobody before had stood up to the Marauders as many times as they had and survived. In fact, from where the whole situation stood (James hadn't attacked either of the girls for about two weeks), it seemed as though both of them had won the battle. Suddenly everybody wanted to be their friend. Even Alice came up to them in tears one day, begging them to forgive her for deserting them.

Sora, the more laid back of the two, took everything in stride. She handled the student body with the same poise and charm that she had since the first day Lily had met her. Lily, on the other hand, didn't really know what to do about her new position. She had always bee the shy, studious girl in the front of the room. In fact, except for Sora, she had never really had a friend that she felt close to. Now that she was the center of attention, Lily found herself becoming very antsy and awkward.

Of course, her new found crush wasn't helping her situation much either. Lily wasn't used to fawning over anybody. She had told herself before that she would never obsess over any guy; but her heartbeat still raced whenever the boy came into sight and she found herself wanting to swoon whenever anybody mentioned his name. She hated herself for her actions, but there really wasn't anything that she could do about it. The hardest part of this whole thing for Lily, though, was keeping her crush a secret from Sora.

Sora, of course, knew that there was something odd about Lily, but she thought it was just their newfound popularity. Sora saw their whole situation as quite surreal. She had always had plenty of friends, but she would never had catogorized herself as being immensly popular. Mostly due to her background and upbringing, Sora was very modest about what she had and never tried to be the center of attention. In Japan, being in the limelight wasn't usually a good thing, even though her family couldn't help being thrust in it from time to time. Sora thought that her and Lily's popularity would be like her father's. He was always powerful, but the community lost interest in him after a while until he did something major again. Sora knew that her and Lily's popularity would last for only a few days, maybe a week, until the school found something better to obsess over.

But after about a week and a half, their popularity had not gone down and Sora found Lily acting more and more odd. She found herself becoming concerned about her friend. Lily always looked like she was in a dream-like state and she would disapear for hours on end only to be be found lying on her bed, staring off into space, a slight smile on her face. If Sora didn't know betterm she would say that her friend was in love.

On one day, about three weeks after the "Petunia incedent", Sora was walking around the halls, looking for Lily, who had diassapeared once again. She knew that once she found her estranged friend that they would have to have a long talk about what was wrong with her lately. It wasn't like Lily to become as detached as she was. sora was just about to go outside and search the gardens when she heard the sharp and familiar music of the violin coming from one of the empty classrooms. The music was sweet and beautifilly played and Sora couldn't help but stand and listen to it. Her brother, Yu, loved violin music and as a result, everybody in the family started to listen to it all the time as well. Yu's doctor had told the family that they needed to encourage him in whatever he found interest in. It was all they could do to help the poor boy along.

Slowly, Sora made her way into the the room where the music was coming from. She found the door to be open and peered inside, only to be shocked. Sitting on top of one of the desks was Sirius, a violin rested under his chin. He heard Sora come in and suddenly put down the instrument, looking very flustered and angry. He was usually very secretive about his music. In fact, the only people that knew about his talent were the mardaurers, but they were his best friends and he trusted them. He wasn't too sure about the minx infront of him, though.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, his voice hard and his eyes cold. Sora didn't even flinch under the boy's gaze, yet she did feel embarressed, as though she had just walked in on something private.

"Sorry- I heard the music. Mozart is one of my favorites" she said, starting to back out of the door, bowing slightly, her natural way of apologizing. Sirius looked at her with eyebrows raised.

"You know muggle musicians?" he asked her.

"Only the classical ones. My brother is obsessed with them" Sora answered, a soft expression coming onto her face when she mentioned her brother. Sirius noticed that as well and decided that the girl had a very weak spot when it came to the boy.

"James mentioned he was ill" Sirius noted. Sora nodded her head a bit. She leaned against the doorway.

"He had cancer a few years back and though he's recovered physically, he needs some help becoming his old self. He's just so haunted and distant" she said, her voice soft. If there was one person in the world that Sora truly cared about more than anyone else, it was Yu. That boy could make her do anything.

Sirius nodded his head "My brother is like that as well- very detached from reality" he noted.

"You have a brother?" Sora asked suprised.

"He's about three years younger than me, he'll be starting school next year." Sirius answered, "Why are you so suprised?" he asked. Sora just shrugged her slight shoulders.

"I don't know. I guess it's because you have that common, egotistical, selfish, spoiled beyond belief, only child behavior" she answered, only half joking. Sirius just shook his head and smiled.

"Watch it Kaito, your neck is still on the line" he taunted her. Sora just laughed.

"You and James are having a row, everybody knows it. You can't get him to hurt me" she said, her voice equally taunting. Sirius thought, with some polishing, Sora could quite possibly become as malicious as James.

"Who says I can't hurt you myself?" Sirius asked the girl. Sora raised her eyebrows and frowned, but her sparkiling blue eyes were filled with mirth.

"You wouldn't dare" she said to him. Sirius returned the girl's gaze.

"Try me, Kaito" he warned her. Sora laughed again, the rich bell like sound echoing in the room.

"Go to hell, Black" she said promptly before turning on her heels and sweeping through the door, her raven hair billowing out behind her. Sirius watched her residing back and shook his head. He picked up his violin once more and started to play, but his heart really wasn't into it anymore. Instead, his thoughts were filled with laughter that sounded like bells and almond shaped sapphire eyes.

* * *

When Sora arrived in the common room, she was almost takeled by Lily, who had run up to her. It was the most active that Sora had seen her friend in days and it took the girl by suprise. 

"Lily, what has gotten into you?" Sora asked her friend. But Lily didn't answer the question. Instead he thrust a paper into Sora's hands. Sora looked at it and raised her eyesbrows. It was an invitation.

"What's so great about being invited to a party?" Sora asked Lily, who just sighed.

"Sora, it's not just any party, it the annual Halloween party!" she almost squealed. Every year, after the formal Hogwarts Halloween celebration, a group of students would have their own party. Enterance was very exclusive, and though the uninvited pretended that the didn't care, everybody was very curious about what went on in the party. This year Lily and Sora had been invited as cheif guests.

"Who invited us?" Sora asked

"Emily, Molly, and Grace" Lily said, causing Sora to groan. The three girls, Ravenclaws, thought that they were the prettiest, smartest, and most talented girls in the whole school. They had even named themselves the marauderettes and believed that every male, especially the marauders, fancied them. Sora hated the girls with a passion.

"You go- I'm not coming" Sora said to Lily, whose face fell.

"But you have to come with me, Sora! I can't possibly go alone!" she almost wailed. Sora just shook her head.

"Why do you even want to go so badly, I thought you hated parties" Sora asked Lily. it seemed that her friend's whole personality had changed overnight.

"I just want to see what it's like. Don't say your not curious" Lily said, half lying. Lily really was curious as to what went on during the party, but she mostly wanted to go because the marauders would be there, and she wanted to have a chance to dress up and look nice in front of Sirius. It was a stupid, girly thing, and Lily knew it. But she had decided that it was okay for her to be girly every now and then. She was a girl after all! Let her wear all the pink and put on as much glitter as she liked! Being a tomboy all the time was downright exhausting.

"Really, Lily, I don't feel up to a party, not after all this excitment we've had. Let me rest, you go" Sora said. Lily looked like she was about to burst into tears. "I'll help you get ready before the party though" Sora added, just to mollify her friend. Lily grudgingly admitted to going to the party solo, which was a big relief for Sora. Even though Sora liked to be in social settings, Emily, Molly, and Grace made her sick.

On the day of the party, about a week later, Sora helped Lily get ready, just as she had promised. She gave Lily her dark green dress robes and did her hair in a way where it looked like a crimson waterfall flowing down her back. In the end, Lily looked downright bewitching, and Sora nodded her approval to her. Lily left for the party feeling quite confident about herself.

"Now, don't stay out to late, dear. Don't make any rash decisions or eat or drink anything that might look suspicious" Sora told Lily before sending the girl out the common room door.

"Thanks, mum, I'll try to be a good girl" Lily said to Sora, a wide smile on her face. Sora returned the smile. There was the sarcastic, pleasant Lily that she knew so well.

Lily took a deep breath and headed towards the Ravenclaw common room, not really knowing quite what to think. Lately her behavior had been anything but normal and she hoped to god that she wouldn't do anything stupid at the party.

She went up to the enterance of the common room, where an unusualy large man in a very clean set of black robes was standing. He looked at Lily and smiled. Slowly he whispered a password and the door opened smoothly.

"Here you go, Mistress Evans, have fun" he said, his voice tilted with a slight spanish accent. Lily, flusstered over being called "Mistress", muttered her thanks to the dorrman and hurried inside.

The Ravenclaw common room looked like a pleasant place to be normally. The couches were a very pretty blue colour and the drapes were a deep bronze. There was a large bronze eagle over the fireplace that Lily could have sworn was real if not for it's metallic sheen.

"Lily!" Three voices creid out in unison. Lily swerved around to see Emily, Molly, and Grace glide over to her, each one wearing the same type of gown, but in three different colours. "We're so glad you could make it!" Emily gushed, looking around Lilly. "Where's Sora?" she asked.

"She wasn't feeling good and couldn't make it" Lily said, her voice suprisingly normal and calm. Suddenly Lily felt quite at ease with her surroundings. That was, of course, until she spotted the marauders off in the corner. All four of them were sitting, looking very bored and brooding as their eyes swept the crowd. Lily caught Jame's eyes and saw them open in suprise. She quickly looked away before he could make any rude faces at her. Sitting next to James was a very hyper Peter, who kept talking, even though it was obvious none of his friends were listening to a word he said. Next to Peter sat Remus, who was idely tracing the pattern of the couch fabric with his finger. Beside Remus, looking very bored indeed, sat Sirius, who looked lost in his own thoughts. Lily's heart skipped a beat, but she kept her calm. It was nothing more than a school girl crush after all.

"Lily, you must come see this!" Molly said, dragging Lily away from where she was standing to another corner of the room. Lily gasped at what she saw before her. Somebody, obviously a person with great magical talents, had transformed one side of the large ravenclaw common room into a pool, complete with diving board.

"Isn't it brilliant! Mark made it just a few hours ago. He's in seventh year and is wonderfully talented" Grace said, a large smile plastered on her face. Lily thought it was quite impractical to have a swimming pool in a party where everybody was dressed up so nicely, but she didn't say so.

Suddenly Lily felt a slight shove and she lost her balance, falling into the pool with a slight splash. Sputtering she surfaced, only to be dragged out by Emily, who turned out to be very strong.

"Oh my, I am sooooooo sorry Lily!" she gushed, her eyes brimming with fake tears "I accidentaly pushed you inside the pool. Can you ever forgive me?" She asked, though her eyes looked quite malicious. Lily was about to tell Emily that she would be okay when the girl brought her face closer to hers.

"This is what you get for messing with the marauders. Leave them alone, they're mine. Pass that message to that little friend of your as well " Emily whispered into Lily's ear. Lily's green eyes grew wide. This had all been a scam. The only reason why she had been invited to the party was so that Emily, Molly, and Grace could humiliate her! Lily's cheeks grew red, but she still had her fighting spirit.

"Make me" she whispered in Emily's ear before breaking away from her. Lily had taken on the marauders, why couldn't she take on three waifs? Emily stood in shocked silence for a moment before putting on a large, hugly fake smile.

"I'm glad you decided to forgive me Lily, you are a true friend" she said, her voice sickly sweet. Lily smiled back at the girl, her grin just as horrible as Emily's, but that was largely due to the fact that she was shivering. The water in that pool was cold.

James, who had been watching the whole scene from the other end of the room, was enraged. He had never really liked the three annoying Ravenclaws that much, but now he felt pure hatred for them, and he didn't even know why.

"You okay there, mate?" Remus asked James. James turned to him.

"Did you see what they just did to her?" James asked, his cheeks red. Remus just shrugged slightly.

"It's what girls do- they fight." he said, and Peter nodded his head in agreement. Sirius, who had been looking at James with an air of amusement spook up.

"Why do you care so much? You hate Evans" he said, raising his eyebrows. James, who was still a stifle angry at Sirius gave his friend a death glare.

"I do hate her" he said, though his voice faltered a bit. Sirius just smiled at him. It was just like James to fall for a girl that hated his guts. Sirius had known that James would be drawn to the girl's spirit and manner, it was his personality to go after the things that he couldn't get. He felt sorry for the boy, though. Lily would never like James back, she was just way to different from him.

"Listen mate..." he sarted to say, turning his head. To his suprise, the seat where James had been seated was now empty. He scanned the crowd and saw a towel floating in the air. The towel moved towards Lily and dropped at her feet. the suprised girl looked around her wildly for the source of the towel, but finding only confused faces, picked it up and dried herself. Sirius, though, was not looking at Lily, but at James, who had suddenly reappeared near the door of the common room. He tucked his watery, silver invisibility cloak into the bag he had been carrying and walked out the door.

"Man, he's got it bad" Sirius whispered, shaking his head.

**A/N: Okay, so how was that? It turns out that James is actually human- who would have thought? So will James confess his love to Lily? Will Lily confess her love to Sirius? Will Peter ever do anything but just nod his head in agreement at what his friends say? Keep reading and find out! **


	6. A Meeting of Odd Proposals

**A/N: Okay, this chapter is a bit shorter than the rest, but I do like it and I had a lot of fun writing it. Enjoy!**

Chapter Six: A Meeting of Odd Proposals

After James had left the party, everyone else slowly started to wander off as well. Remus and Peter went back to the common room, but Sirius, not really in the mood to go back just yet decided to head out for the astronomy tower. He needed a bit of time to himself, especially after what just happened. Usually the Halloween party consisted of nothing but those three unusually hyper Ravenclaw girls jumping off the walls until they faint from drinking too much spiked punch. This year had been quite different, and not only in terms of the party. Sirius had known it from the beginning, Lily and Sora would change the way Hogwarts ran from then on. Ever since the war had begun, nothing had been quite the same.

Slowly climbing up the stairs, Sirius thought back to how the Marauders even began. He and James had been best friends ever since he helped James steal the sorting hat the first day of school. Both of the boys had gotten into major trouble and had created an impenetrable friendship in the long months of detention. They had also become the heroes of their class. Remus, they met just a short week later when they were assigned seats next to him in Charms. At first they thought he was a bit nerdy, but soon they found out that he had a sharp, clever mind and a dry sarcasm that he could use to set the whole class up in uncontrollable laughter with just a few words. Peter, they hadn't really noticed until the end of their first year when James and Remus had saved him from being killed by the giant squid. He had latched himself onto the three from then on, but he was a painfully loyal boy and his odd sense of humor appealed to the rest, so they didn't mind him being in their group. From then on, they had called themselves the Marauders, and every year that passes the greater their acclaim grew and the more ruthless they became. This year they had all learned to become animagi and now they had even more escapades and more chances to sneak into places. It was fun, Sirius had to admit, but he wondered how much more he could handle everything. Being one of the four most powerful boys in school wasn't as glamorous as everybody seemed to think.

Upon reaching the top of the staircase, Sirius new someone was already up there. He caught a smell of the familiar scent of oranges and cream before he even saw Sora standing near the ledge, looking out at the dark sky. He was just about to turn away when Sora started to talk.

"I'll leave if you want me to, Black" she said, not turning around.

"How did you know I was here?" Sirius asked her

"Magic" Sora suggested, turning around, her blue eyes shining with laughter. Sirius just shook his head.

"Party to dull for you?" Sora asked the boy, eyebrows raised.

"Too interesting. It put me off balance" he answered, only slightly sarcastic.

"Ah yes, can't have you enjoying yourself too much, can we now?" Sora retorted "It might lead to trouble, and it would be a shame for such a _well behaved_ boy to get in trouble" she added, her own answer dripping with sarcasm.

"How right you are- I'm practically a saint" Sirius said, not bothering to hide his grin. Sora shook her head, her mouth curving into a half smile.

"Did everyone leave?" Sora asked.

"If you mean to ask if Lily left, then yes she did" he said. Sora frowned a bit.

"But it's too early for the party to be over" she said.

"Well Lily needed to go change into some dry clothes" Sirius answered. Sora's frown grew deeper.

"Dry clothes?" she asked. Sirius told Sora the whole story about what happened at the party, casually leaving out the part about James and the towel. He and James weren't on the best of terms at that moment, but Sirius was still loyal to him and wouldn't betray his secret.

Sora's eyes flashed with anger as Sirius told her the whole story. She had known the three girls were bad news from the beginning.

"I have to go now" she said after Sirius had finished.

"Where to?" he asked. Sora looked at him blankly.

"My best friend just got pushed into a pool. Where do you think I'm going? To go murder Molly, Emily, and Grace, of course!" she said, her tone serious but her eyes still dancing with mirth. Sirius couldn't help but laugh.

"Maybe you should help Lily out first" he offered. Sora scrunched her nose.

"Yes, and I'll really be taking advice from a person who was about to dump purple ink all over Lily's sister just a few weeks ago" Sora answered. For some reason, Sirius felt hurt.

"That was James!" he cried.

"Your guilty by association" Sora said smugly before turning on her heels and flying down the stairs, fire in her eyes. When she got her hands on those three prissy little girls…

The next day Molly, Emily, and Grace were nowhere to be seen. Word got around school that someone had dyed their hair a ferocious shade of lime green overnight. When Sirius first heard the news he was at the breakfast table. He laughed so hard that milk sputtered out of his nose. He snuck a glance at Sora, who was sitting a few seats away with a satisfied smirk and a trace of hidden laughter in her eyes. James, too, was rather happy at the news. He didn't know who had dyed the girls' hair at first, but he followed Sirius's gaze and upon seeing Sora's smile knew it had to have been her. After learning this, James decided to act upon the thought he had been having all of the night before. He turned to his friends.

"Meeting tonight, room of requirement" he whispered to them. All of them were curious, but just nodded their heads, knowing that James would give nothing away until that night.

When Remus, Peter and Sirius went to the room that night they found that James was already there with a folder in his hand.

"What's that?" Remus asked, nodding at the folder.

"It's the Marauders Official Folder" James said, making the flimsy paper holder seem very important indeed.

"Since when have we had an official folder?" Peter asked.

"Since I decided we needed one!" James answered, scowling. Sirius just shook his head and sat down next to James.

"So what's on your mind, mate?" he asked James.

"Nothing really…" James started

"Rubbish- we haven't had a meeting in ages! You only call one when there is something important to discuss" Peter said. James frowned at him.

"You have no sense of dramatic build up, do you Peter?" James asked.

"Get on with it already James" Remus said. James looked flustered.

"Well fine then- the first order of business today is the discussion on the induction of two new members into out group" James said. His statement was met with utter silence from his three friends.

"Two new members?" Peter said finally, breaking the awkward silence.

"Two new Marauders?" Remus echoed. James nodded his head, taking out two pieces of red paper from his folder. Each had a golden flower drawn on it.

"Invitations" he explained to the three boys. Sirius looked at the papers intently and then glanced up at James.

"Well, who are they for?" he asked James.

"Who do you think? Lily and Sora, of course" he answered.

"What!" cried Peter "why in the world would you invite those two into our group. They've been nothing but trouble for us!" he said.

"Exactly" James answered "you have to agree that it would be more beneficial to us to have those two girls on our side than against us." He said.

"You do have a point" Remus said slowly.

"I know I do! Lily and Sora are smart and they are brave. They stood up to us countless times- they'll be perfect assets to our group" James said.

"But they have too many morals. They can never be like you" Remus retorted. James scoffed.

"Of course they can't be like me, nobody can" James said.

"Very modest, mate" Peter said sarcastically. James just ignored him.

"How in the world are you going to get them to agree on joining with us? They hate anything that has to do with the Marauders" Sirius said, brining up the most crucial point. James drew in a breath.

"Well, I was thinking about that and I decided to offer them an offer." James said.

"If I remember correctly, the last time you offered those two something, you and Sirius got called gay and they ran out on you" Peter pointed out.

"You know what Peter, your negative attitude is not helping anybody" James said. Peter just shrugged.

"Just trying to be realistic" he answered.

"What's the offer?" Remus asked.

"They join our group and we surrender to them" James said.

"Surrender as in lose the war?" Remus asked. James nodded.

"Wow, this is the first time I've ever seen the great James Potter willing to lose anything" Sirius said, eyebrows raised.

"If they agree to the offer- then it's not like we're really losing anything" James said.

"Except our pride" Peter said.

"Peter! I have…"

"I think it's a good plan" Remus said, interrupting James before he blew up on Peter. Sirius nodded his head.

"We could give it a shot" he said. James beamed at the two and then looked down at Peter.

"Well what do you have to say, Mister McNegative?" James asked. Peter fake pouted at him.

"There's no harm in trying" he answered.

"Then it's unanimous! We will deliver the invitations tonight!" James said. Peter, Remus and Sirius shared an amused look with one another over James's excitement.

"This is bound to be lovely" Remus said.

**A/N: Okay, loves, so how was it. You finally got to see the Marauders in a more informal setting. It was fun to write them interacting with each other and I hope you had fun reading it. Review please- I love to hear your comments.**


	7. An Offer or Two

**A/N: Okay, so this chapter is a bit longer than I usually write, but I do like it. Hope you have fun reading it. Please review and tell me what you think. Enjoy!**

Chapter Seven: An Offer or Two…

Lily woke up early the next day, as always. The sun was just starting to stream into the dormitory, and Lily couldn't help but smile to herself. It was a lovely sight, she thought, the dormitory this early in the morning. Everything was silent and a peaceful calm swept over the room. In the weak early morning light, the crimson blankets and drapes were colored a dusty rose and gave the room the feeling of an old, colonial, English bedchamber, the types she had seen in muggle movies with her parents.

She leaned against her headboard, thinking about home, back in the windy little hamlet of Breckenshire. It was a tiny little thing, but her parents were right proud of it and always kept it cozy and neat. She remembered the way that it always smelled of something cooking, and how her father was always in the kitchen, experimenting on some new recipe. In the winter times there was always a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg in the air. Her mum would always poke fun at her father's cooking as she sat at the kitchen table, sewing and stitching her latest project. Between the two parents, the Evans family barely made enough to afford the house rent, food, and schooling for their two girls. But they were a happy family and Lily felt terribly homesick and sad in the large dormitory with its plush décor.

She pushed herself out of bed, shuddering as her feet touched the freezing marble floor. She quickly slipped into her silk slippers, a gift from Sora a few years ago. As she walked past her bed, something on her bedpost caught her eye. There, taped on the dark wood, was a red paper. Lily sucked in her breath, thinking that it was a red notice.

"Aren't we pat this stage already?" she said to herself, taking the paper off the bedpost. On it, she saw was a flower, etched beautifully in gold ink. Confused, she turned it over. There was something written in scratchy writing on the back.

"10 a.m., the room of requirement" she read aloud, confused even further. She went to the bed beside hers, where Sora lay, still in a deep sleep. Lily noticed that she too had the red paper on her bedpost and shook her until she woke up.

"You better have a bloody good reason for waking me up this early" Sora grumbled, rubbing her eyes. Lily ignored her friend and literally thrust the paper in her face. Taking it, Sora scanned over it, threw it on the ground, and fell back down on her pillow.

"Sora- what does this mean!" Lily cried.

"Obviously that they want to meet us at 10 in the room of requirement" Sora said groggily.

"Aren't you the least bit worried?" Lily asked her friend.

"No. Let me sleep" Sora said. Lily frowned.

'How can you not be even a little anxious?" Lily asked.

"Because I know we'll be safe" Sora answered. Lily thought about what she said for a minute.

"How can you be sure?" she asked. Sora turned around and glared at Lily.

"Lily, if you don't shut up and let me sleep then I cannot be sure about how safe you will be" she said. Lily pouted and slid off Sora's bed. So much for asking for advice. Lily made a mental note to never bother Sora before 6 ever again.

* * *

At ten, Lily and Sora left the common room and headed towards the room of requirement. They stopped along the way because Sora insisted on sending a letter at that exact moment, so they reached the room about ten minutes late. Both of the walked past it three times and then entered.

The Marauders were already there, looking intimidating and tailored in matching red cloaks. Sora recalled that she had only seen them wear those cloaks once before, and that was when they had delivered their first red notice.

"You're late" James said to the two girls. Lily shuddered a bit, James sounded very angry. Sora on the other hand, couldn't care the least.

"You're lucky we even showed up considering what happened last time we were in this room" Sora said coldly. James blushed to his roots, which just egged Sora on even more.

"Where are the beauty products, James? I do feel it's about time for a touch up" Sora said, eyebrows raised.

"Listen, Kaito- I did not ask you to come here to fight" James said, trying to calm himself. Lily scoffed.

"Then what did you invite us here for?" Lily asked James.

"I was just about to get to that" James snapped, clearly angry at the way things were going. He was James Potter, he called the shots, he dictated the way things ran!

"I am going to make both of you an offer" James said, causing Sora and Lily to grimace.

"I thought you learned you lesson, James" Lily stated.

"Hear me out on this" James said to the two girls. Lily, confused, looked up at Sora.

"This better be worthwhile, Potter" Sora said to James, her tone taught yet bored at the same time. James smiled to himself. The first step of the plan was convincing the girls to listen to him; and that went without a hitch. The second, step though, would be a bit trickier. He took out a scroll from his pocket.

"You wrote a speech?" Lily asked. The rest of the Marauders looked surprised as well. Nobody had seen James put this much effort into anything before.

"It's more official" James answered, handing the paper to Sirius. "You read it" he whispered. Sirius nodded gently.

"We, James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew hereby announce that on this day of November 2nd in the good year of 1971, Mistress Lily Evans and Mistress Sora Kaito are formally invited to join the group commonly known as the Marauders" Sirius read, trying very hard not to laugh.

"You wrote that yourself?" Peter asked James. James shot the boy a quick, nasty look.

"Wait a minute. You're inviting Lily and me to join your group" Sora said, shocked.

"Yeah- that is what was written" James answered, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Why in heaven's name would we do that?" Lily asked. James just nodded his head.

"Sirius read Contention 1, sub point A" James said very formally. Sirius just shook his head and scanned the paper, finding the line.

"James, I can't read this" Sirius said

"Why not?" James asked, his voice icy.

"Because it doesn't make sense. Did you even understand what you were writing down?" Sirius asked.

"Just read it, Sirius" James said, his eyes cold. Sirius just shrugged.

"Have it your way" he said, picking up the scroll. "The Marauders are willing to end their dauntless exchange of blows with the aforementioned parties timely and cohesively upon initiation into aforementioned group containing to and strictly following all laws, rules, and regulations herby proclaiming." Sirius read. Everybody just stared at him with blank faces.

"What in the world does that mean, mate?" Remus asked. James just sighed.

"You're supposed to be the smart one, Moony" James said.

"Yeah, but that wasn't even grammatically correct. You can't end a sentence with the word proclaiming" Remus retorted. Sora rolled her eyes.

"James, just translate it for us" she asked. James nodded.

"Basically it states that the Marauders will surrender in this war if you and Lily would be willing to join our group" James said. Lily's mouth dropped.

"You'll really surrender?" she asked. James smiled

"Of course, it was written in the speech, wasn't it?" he asked.

"Possibly" Peter said, earning him another glare from James. Lily turned to Sora, her eyes questioning. Sora, though, looked straight ahead. She suddenly grabbed Lily be the shoulder and pulled her so that they were out of hearing range of the Marauders.

"Are we going to accept?" Lily asked Sora.

"I think we should" Sora answered. Lily frowned a bit.

"But why would we want to be part of the Marauders?" Lily asked.

"Well for one, it would be the perfect revenge on Grace, Molly and Emily, they've been trying to become part of the group for ages" Sora said. Lily nodded.

"But it seems a bit like giving up" Lily said. Sora grinned wickedly.

"Not if we make them an offer of our own" she said. Lily's eyes lit up as Sora bent down and whispered something in her ear.

"You are quite evil, you know" Lily said. Sora just nodded her head. "I know" she answered. Both of the girls walked back to the boys.

"So have you decided?" James asked. Sora nodded her head.

"We'll join- as long as you follow a few certain conditions" Sora said, causing James to frown a bit.

"What conditions?" James asked.

"First- you have to let us have friends outside of the group" Lily said.

"Done" James said.

"Second- you have to consult both of us and get our approval before you pass out any red notices." Sora said. James faltered a bit.

"Done" he answered, though this time not as happy. "How many more of these do you have?" he asked.

"Just a few more" Sora said. James groaned.

"Third- all four of you have to announce very publicly that you surrender to us" Lily added. James paled a bit.

"Only if you let us also announce that you two joined our group" James said. Lily looked at Sora and both of them shared a tight nod.

"Done" Lily said.

"Fourth- you will never attend any of Molly, Grace, and Emily's parties ever again" Sora said. James nodded quickly.

"More than happy to comply with that" he said.

"And lastly- you will have to change the name of the group" Lily said, causing a bit of an uproar.

"What's wrong with the Marauders? It's a fine name!" Remus said sullenly.

"It took us ages to come up with it in the first place!" Peter said.

"We're girl, we can't be Marauders" Sora stated plainly.

"How about we call you the Marauderettes?" James suggested.

"The Marauders and Marauderettes" Sirius said "sounds like a horrible rock band".

"Plus that's what Molly, Grace, and Emily call themselves" Lily added in.

"They do have a bit of a point" Sirius said. James looked devastated.

"But we've always been the Marauders!" he whined.

"Yeah, but we have also always been four boys. Now we're adding two girls. I guess a name change is in order" Remus said, thinking deeply. Sora and Lily nodded.

"But what in the world are we going to be called?" James said "I hadn't planned for this" he added.

"How about the H6?" Peter suggested. Everybody looked at him.

"H6?" Sora asked him.

"Yeah, as in Hogwart's six." He said "The six most powerful people in the school" he added.

"I kind of like it" Remus said. Sirius, Sora, and Lily nodded in agreement.

"Okay then, I guess we can be called the H6" James sighed. "Though the Marauders was a much cooler name" he added.

"Get over it, James" Remus said. James frowned.

"Okay, now that this is in place- we do the initiation ceremony and we'll all be on our way" James said.

"You didn't mention anything about an initiation ceremony" Sora said quickly.

"It's nothing big. We just get into a circle and we all tell one secret about ourselves. That way, if one of us betrays the group we have dirt on them" James said.

"That's evil" Lily said. James shrugged.

"Welcome to the H6, love" he said Lily frowned.

"Don't call me love" she pouted. James matched her frown.

"Let's just get this over with" Peter said, interrupting James's and Lily's spat before it escalated.

"Wonderful, Peter why don't you start us off then" James said. Peter rolled his eyes.

"Fine. My secret is that I am adopted' Peter said. "My real dad's a drunkard who lives in main city London. My real mum was a whore who died about six years ago when she lost a duel" he said. Lily and Sora stifled gasps. So Peter wasn't really born into a high, wealthy family after all.

"You next, Sirius" James said.

"My secret is that I play the violin. I've played it ever since I was a little child" he said. James looked up at him.

"You forgot one little part" James said. Sirius glared at him.

"Fine, if James insists. When I was younger I was the head singer in the London children's opera" Sirius added, blushing a bit. Lily couldn't hold in her small laugh. She could just imagine a younger looking Sirius in a suit singing opera. Sora, too, found it amusing, though she was better at hiding it than Lily.

"Okay, Remus- you're up" James said. Remus took in a deep breath. His secret was a bit more serious that the others'.

"I'm a werewolf" Remus stated out flat. There really was no need to try to dodge the fact. Lily gasped. Sora on the other hand smiled.

"Really?" she asked. Remus looked surprised and nodded back. He hadn't expected Sora to look pleased over it.

"I guess I'll go next then" Sora said. James looked a bit sour. He was the one who called the shots. But he decided to let Sora have a chance.

"My father is a werewolf" Sora said, her voice sounding a bit proud. "And my mum's great grandma is half-vampire" she said.

"That's wicked" Sirius said, impressed not by the girl's lineage, but by the pride she had in her voice for them. It was obvious that Sora wasn't a person who discriminated often.

"That's amazing" Remus said. He hadn't really known any other werewolves except himself.

"I guess I'll go next" James said, trying to bring the attention back to him. "I can't read anything without my glasses on" he said. Lily and Sora burst out laughing.

"You wear glasses?" Sora asked. James look flustered.

"Only when I need to read something!" he said.

"I guess that's why you never read anything when the professor calls on you in class" Lily said, grinning "This whole time I thought you were just daft" she said. James frowned deeply.

"Well let's hear your secret, Miss high and mighty" James said. Lily sobered up immediately.

"Well, I don't have many secrets" she said "my parents are both muggles, as well as my sister. We aren't the richest family, but we get along fine. I do have a stupid little collection of miniature bird figurines that I keep in my room. It's very tacky, but I do love it" she said. James raised an eyebrow.

"Miniature bird figurines?" he asked. Lily blushed.

"I wouldn't be talking if I were you, mister blind!" she said. James puffed up.

"At least I don't collect retarded trinkets" he retorted.

"At least I don't need help to see what I'm reading" she answered back.

"It's not like it's my fault!" James said, turning red with anger.

"It's going to be a long four more years" Sora said to herself, shaking her head.

**A/N: Okay, so what did you think? Next chapter the Marauders (or should I say H6?) will officially announce in front of the school that they surrendered and that Lily and Sora had joined their group. Wonder how our three favorite Ravenclaw girls will take it….**


	8. An Announcement marked by tears

**A/N: So here's the next chapter. I didn't have much homework to do, I was able to write it and put it up rather quickly, so you're lucky. Enjoy!**

Chapter Eight: An Announcement Marked By Tears

The next day, both Lily and Sora got up early, which was no small feat for Sora. Silently, as to not wake up their fellow roommates, they got ready and dressed. Both were lost in their own little worlds, thinking about what was about to happen. Before leaving the room, they slipped on their new red cloaks with "H6" written in scroll letters on the corner. Lily traced her finger over the emblem and sighed, she was now officially in the same group as the four boys that she had sworn to hate forever.

Climbing down the stairs, quietly, Sora mulled over the decision that her and Lily had made the night before. They were now the two most powerful girls in the whole school, yet she felt no different- besides the fact that the heavy red cloak was making her a bit hot and stuffy. Sora still didn't know if she and Lily had made the right choice.

Still in silence, both girls slipped out of the common room and walked towards the room of requirement. Sora looked over at Lily and saw her looking at her cloak with disgust.

"Something the matter, Lils?" Sora asked, calling her friend by the nickname she had given her in their first year.

"The cloaks are red" Lily answered, frowning. Sora looked down at the cloak, seeing nothing wrong with its redness.

"Red is a lovely colour" Sora said. Lily groaned.

"Yeah, it would be lovely if my hair wasn't the same color!" Lily said sullenly. "And you know how easily I blush! If one person says something even somewhat nice or embarrassing to me, I'll look like a Tomato!" she wailed. Sora tried to stifle a laugh, but didn't really succeed.

"Cheer up, yeah? We only have to wear the cloaks on 'special occasions'" Sora said, making quotation marks in the air when she said the last two words. Lily couldn't help but grin.

The two girls reached the room, walked past it three times, then entered.

"That whole walking by three times seems like a bloody bother to me" Sora mumbled as they entered in.

The four boys were already waiting for them in the room, each wearing matching cloaks.

"How early do you lot wake up?" Sora asked the boys. They shrugged.

"I can't say exactly- five, perhaps" Remus said. Sora gaped at him.

"Five! Dear lord, you are robots" she said.

"Nah- we're just not lazy like you" Remus answered, Causing Sora to make an interesting face at him. James shook his head. It had only been one day and it felt like the girls had been with them forever.

"Okay so we should go over what we are going to do today" James said.

"What we are going to do?" Lily asked.

"Yeah, how we plan to announce to the school our surrender and your joining with us" James answered. Lily scoffed.

"You have a plan for that?" she said "Do you schedule everything?"

"Scheduling keeps you from making stupid mistakes, as you are all too famous for doing Mistress Evans" James said, his voice becoming cold. Sora rolled her eyes.

"Just tell us your plan, James" she said. James took out a paper and gave it to Sora to read aloud.

"Why don't you just wear your glasses, everyone here knows you have them" Sirius asked. James scowled.

"They look stupid" he mumbled, causing Sora to grin.

"Well then, in that case, I guess it would be my pleasure to spare the ever great James Potter from looking stupid" she said, holding the paper up to read it.

"Surrender/Initiation Plan. Step One, the H6 congregates on the balcony of the great hall"

"The great Hall has a balcony?" Peter asked, interrupting Sora. James nodded.

"Yeah, but I don't think anybody else knows of it" he said proudly. "Continue reading' he said to Sora.

"Step Two: Address the Hogwarts public and tell them about the Marauder's surrender and the forming of the H6 in that order" Sora read, looking up at the five faces in front of her.

"Yeah, what else?" Remus asked.

"No idea, that's all that was written down" Sora said, shrugging.

"It's a good plan, pretty obvious, though" Sirius said. James frowned deeply.

"It's not obvious at all, it took me a while to come up with that balcony bit" James said, defending himself.

"That balcony bit was pretty cool" Peter said

"Don't bother flattering him Peter, it was a pretty lame plan" Lily said, earning her a famous "James Death Glare".

"Let's just get on with the plan, huh? It's about breakfast time right now" Remus said. Sora was beginning to see that he was the calm and collected one in the group. James was the temperamental hothead, Peter was the sarcastic comic relief, and Sirius was the mysterious, semi-supportive one. She wondered what Lily and herself would be classified as.

"Okay then let's move out" James said. The six of them walked out of the room and headed towards the Great Hall. Lily thought that they must look very intimidating, all in their matching cloaks, it was a bit odd.

When they reached the entrance of the grand hall, James took out his wand and tapped the little bronze gargoyle by the door once.

"State your name" the gargoyle said in a raspy, dry voice.

"James Potter" he answered, his voice sounding very boastful for some reason.

"Welcome Master Potter" The gargoyle said, sliding out of the way to reveal a narrow staircase.

"Wicked" Sora said. "How did you find this?" she asked.

"My mum and dad found it when they came here. It's a Potter family secret" he said. The six kids walked up the stairs and found themselves on a rather respectably sized balcony. The floor was made of pink marble and the railing seemed to be pure gold. It was a beautiful little place, overlooking the four student tables as well as the professor's table.

"Shall we do this, then?" James asked. The rest of the five nodded. Lily looked out at the students below her and felt a nervousness growing the pit of her stomach. She hadn't really been good with public speaking before.

"Don't worry, I know James is going to do all of the talking" Sora said, reading Lily's nervous face.

And right on cue, James walked up to the edge of the balcony and signaled for the rest to follow him. Once they were all next to him he cleared his thought rather loudly and clapped his hands a few times until he had the attention of all the members of the Great Hall.

As soon as the students saw the six up on the balcony, whispers flew across the hall. Sora shook her head; Hogwarts was such a gossiping school.

"Fellow students" James said, his voice echoing in the vastness of the hall.

"You can cut it with the whole formal thing" Peter whispered to him. James responded by deftly elbowing him in his stomach.

"Sirius, Peter, Remus and I are here today to announce to you that we have officially surrendered this war to Mistresses Lily Evans and Sora Kaito" he said. A loud gasp went through the hall. Everybody stared at James with large eyes. What did this mean? Was this the end of the Marauders?

"And unfortunately, this does mark the end of the Marauders" James continued, causing the people of the hall to lapse into an even greater state of wonder and excitement.

"But it is not because we four boys are stepping down from out positions, but because we are inaugurating two new members into our group." James added quickly. The hall became so silent that a pin dropping would sound a like a bomb exploding.

"The group before known as the Marauders has now changed into the much improved group, The H6." He continued.

"And now let me introduce you to the new two member, Mistress Sora Kaito and Mistress Lily Evans" he said, pushing the two girls to the front. Both of them looked down over the vast sea of people below them.

"I never knew there were so many people in this school!" Lily whispered.

"They're all your loyal subjects now" James said to her, grinning. Lily's eyes widened. Her loyal subjects! She would never, ever get used to that type of power.

Everybody in the hall just stared at the two girls for quite a while. Then somebody, a first year perhaps, bowed down to them. Like a ripple, everybody in the hall started to bow as well.

"Oh, get up, you're such a daft lot!" Sora cried out to the people, who looked very shocked. From behind her she could hear Sirius give out his familiar bark-like laughter.

"There's no need to bow down to us- we're students just like you" Sora said to the people "We didn't join the group because we wanted power" she added.

"No you joined the group because you are two good for nothing, meddlesome whores!" a sickly familiar voice called out from the side of the hall. Sora and Lily lazily turned their heads in the direction of the voice to see Molly, Grace and Emily standing up, quaking with fear.

"Nice to see you three again. I guess the green dye wore out" Lily said to them casually.

"Don't you dare talk to me like that, you filthy little skank!" Molly cried out.

"Now what in the world did I do to deserve to be called such an awful name" Lily asked the girl.

"I told you to stay away from the Marauders; I told you they were ours!" Emily screamed. Sora raised her eyebrows at that comment.

"Well obviously the Marauders didn't share the same opinion" Sora said, causing the three girls to fume.

"What would you know about the Marauders?" Grace seethed "Your just a little filthy girl whose daddy buys her everything she wants!" she added.

"Great description of yourself, Grace" Lily answered.

"Yeah, except it seems that daddy couldn't buy you your little boy toys" Sora added, causing a few people in the hall to laugh. The laughter, though, was just fuel to the raging psychopath girls' flames.

"You mark my words, Kaito, you will be sorry that you ever made that comment" Molly said, shooting daggers from her eyes. Sirius suddenly came up to the front.

"You lay one finger on her, Molly and I swear that I will personally rip every single hair out of that pretty little head of yours" Sirius said, his voice dripping with malice.

"You think I have a pretty little head!" Molly cried, her voice suddenly filled with bliss and her eyes brimming with tears of joy.

"No fair!" cried Grace and Emily in unison, holding each other's hands and jumping up and down like five year olds.

"Are they serious?" Sora said, looking at the slightly disturbing scene in front of her.

"Unfortunately, yes" Lily answered, looking equally as disgusted.

Suddenly Molly, Grace, and Emily came back from the happy little world that they had just been in and mellowed considerably.

"If this is the way that you four boys are going to treat us after all that we have done for you, then so be it" Molly said, her tears of joy suddenly turning to tears of sorrow. Sora wondered if the girl needed to be put on medications for her mood swings.

"You won't be seeing any more of us three ever again!" Grace said dramatically.

"Good riddance, then" James said back. All three girls burst into frantic tears and crumpled on the floor, making sure to add dramatic little flairs and hand flourishes. James looked at them as though they were toads.

"Does anybody else have any comments?" James asked. Everybody shook their heads.

"Well I guess this meeting has been traumatic enough" James said, eyeing the three Ravenclaw girls who were now rolling on the floor and bawling, as though they were insane patients.

He turned around and whisked off the balcony, his red cloak fluttering behind him.

"He sure knows how to make a grand exit" Lily said, rolling her eyes.

Sora looked at James's receding back and then at Molly, Grace, and Emily.

"Why do I have a feeling that we made the wrong choice" she said to Lily, shaking her head.

**A/N: Okay, so how was that? This chapter marks the end of the H6's 3rd year. The only reason why I wrote this up till now was to show how the group was formed. Now the real, fun, juicy story can begin. The next chapter will forward so that when you see the H6 again, it will be the first day of their 7th year. And let me just say right now, what a year that will be. Filled with betrayals, lies, romances, and of course, more wacky drama with your most favorite six people…**


	9. New Beginnings

**A/N: Wow, another chapter posted up already. I'm on a roll here! This chapter starts out on the H6's first day of 7th year. Let's see how time as past. Enjoy and review!**

Chapter Seven: New Beginnings

The school year started just as any other would, would crowds of students dressed in black cloaks making their way into the school entrance. It was easy to pick out the little first years, with their yes wide open in shock and amazement. But just as easily to pick out from the crowd were two familiar faces of two familiar girls.

Lily and Sora made their way up the stairs, their gait casual and uncaring. They had changed quite a bit from the gawky teenagers they had been four years ago.

Lily had grown out her flaming red hair so that it lay in perfect curls to the middle of her back. Her eyes were large and bright green and the freckles that she had a few years before were greatly reduced. She was a person who would be best described as cute or adorable.

Sora, on the other hand, was neither cute nor adorable. The exotic beauty that had been hinted at when she was thirteen had not disappointed anybody. Her hair was long, sleek and jet black, falling to her waist in silky strands. Her almond shaped eyes were still a sparkling sapphire shade and her ruby lips were always wearing a sort of secretive half smile. She was a beautiful girl, in a dangerously striking way.

Both girls too had an air of confidence that they hadn't seemed to half back when they started Hogwarts. But of course, the events of the past years could have been cause for that. Their relationship with the rest of the H6 had improved in some ways, and worsened in others.

James had declared his undying love for Lily the first day of fourth year, and despite her constant rejections, wouldn't give up. Sora thought the whole thing was quite noble, but there was no way she would tell James that. His head was big enough as it was. As for the rest of the three boys, Lily and Sora had become quite close to them. They learned to understand Sirius's sullenness, comprehend Remus's dry sarcasm, and frequently joined Peter in poking fun at James. In short, they had gotten to be good friends.

"Sora, Lily, bonjour!" Sora and Lily turned their heads to see a familiar girl with soft brown curls running up to them.

"Alice!" Lily said, smiling at the girl. In the past two years, Alice Catton had become Lily and Sora's very good friend. Since the two of them spent most of their time with four immature boys, they found it refreshing to have a close friend who was a girl. That summer Lily and Sora had visited the girl in her house in Paris. It was an amazing week and all three girls had a great time.

"Feels great to finally be seventh years, doesn't it?" Alice asked, grinning.

"Of course!" Lily answered "No more having to stay up until three in the morning to write potions papers or memorize charms" she added.

"Lily, only you stay up that late, the rest of us are normal, average slackers" Sora said.

"Yes, but Lily is the top of our class, she has a reputation to uphold" Alice said. "Especially now that she's our head girl" Lily groaned at that comment.

"Please don't remind me of that!" she said. Alice looked at her, surprised.

"But it's a great honor to be head girl, isn't it?" she asked, confused. Sora shook her head slightly.

"It is, but haven't you heard who the head boy is?" she asked. Alice shook her head.

"It isn't the creeper is it?" Alice asked, causing Sora to grin. The creeper was the nickname that the H6 (and Alice) had created for Severus Snape, the chilling Slytherin boy who hated the H6 with a passion.

"I would have rather preferred being partnered with the creeper!" Lily cried, causing Alice to gasp.

"It can't be all that bad!" she said.

"It's not really. The head boy is James" Sora said. Alice put on a strange expression for a second, but replaced it quickly with a smile.

"Aw, Lily, James isn't all that bad at all" Alice said, in a lame attempt to try to cheer the girl up. Lily just looked blankly at Alice.

"Of course it's bad. I can't stand that boy!" Lily cried.

"Who can't you stand, my dear?"

Lily, Sora and Alice spun around to find the four boys standing behind them. They too had changed quite a bit in the past years.

James, whose nose in the past had always seemed too long and narrow and, had grown into his features. Combined with his glittering hazel eyes, James had become a rather fetching young lad.

Remus was the only one in the group who hadn't changed much. His hair was still sandy blond and cut very neatly. His eyes were a light, warm colour and time had only made him look more warm and approachable, two things that he usually tended not to be to anybody outside of the H6.

Peter had lost much of his baby fat and his features became clearer because of it. His eyes were a bit too small and his nose was a bit too pointy, like a rat's; but he still contained a good amount of boyish appeal that could charm any lady he chose.

Sirius was the one who had changed the most out of the boys. His hair was still as dark and messy as ever, but he didn't bother to style it anymore, preferring to let it fall naturally, messily down. He had lost a bit of weight so his dark eyes seemed a bit larger and his features more prominent. He was still as handsome as sin, even more so now, and couldn't walk down the hall without turning a few heads.

Sora looked up at the group of boys and smiled. Just four years ago, these had been the boys that she hated. Now, she couldn't even remember life outside of the H6. Sure the boys were conceited, arrogant snobs; but they were her conceited, arrogant snobs, and besides, they needed someone to keep them in line.

"Lily was just ranting about her extreme misfortune" Sora said, answering James's question. James looked worried.

"Why? What happened?" he asked, concerned. Lily just glared at the boy.

"What happened was that you had to ruin the only one thing that I had wanted since my first year!" she cried. James frowned. He knew exactly what Lily was talking about, she had been ranting about it all summer long.

"Evans, I don't see what the big problem is here! It's not like your going to have to marry me or something like that" James said. Lily paled just thinking about that.

"No but I'll have to share a dormitory with you and eat every meal with you for the rest of the year!" she cried.

"Lily you've been sharing a dormitory with James since first year and eating with him every meal for four years" Remus pointed out.

"But it's not the same! You know that the Head students' dormitories are separate from the normal dorms" Lily said. Sora nodded her head, Lily did have a point. James just frowned deeper.

"Lily, I really don't see why you're still so mad at me. I haven't given a red notice in two years; I've tried to be more mannerful to other people; and I've promised to stop hexing people, even creeper just to make you happy!" James said.

"Mannerful isn't a word" Lily said tightly, choosing to ignore everything else James said. James just sighed. He took a box from his bag and gave it to her.

"Well, anyways, I found this when my parents and I went to Africa over the summer. I thought you would like it" he said, his voice tinged with a hint of sadness that softened Lily up a bit.

"Thank you James" she said. James just nodded and walked away. The rest of the three boys lingered around to see what the gift was. Lily carefully opened the package and gasped when she saw what was inside.

"Oh my" she said softly. Inside, nestled in newspapers written in some sort of African language was a perfect little miniature bird figurine carved out of wood. It was beautifully made with little pieces of emeralds for the eyes. Sora looked at it and raised her eyebrows.

"He remembered" she said, causing Lily to feel horrible.

"I am going to go thank him" Lily said, rushing off in the direction that James had left in, leaving Sora, the three boys and Alice.

"Um, I've got to leave too" Alice said quickly "Professor Sparks asked me to help her round the first years up to take them to sorting" she explained, saying goodbye to Sora and the boys and leaving.

"So then, I guess we should move on to the great hall as well" Sirius said.

"I guess so" Sora answered. Sirius bowed down formally and extended his hand.

"Does the Mistress need an escort to take her to the hall safely?" he asked. Sora laughed and shook her head.

"Doesn't she always?" she answered, though instead of taking Sirius's hand, she slapped it and ran. Sirius cursed under his breath. Ever since their fourth year Sirius and Sora had raced to the great hall on the first day of school, and every year Sora had, by some way or another, won. Sirius ran right after the girl, determined to finally beat her.

Peter and Remus just stared after the two, shaking their heads.

"They totally fancy each other" Peter said.

"Completely" Remus added.

"Wonder how long it will take them to figure it out?" Peter asked.

"Not long, I'm guessing" Remus answered, slowly starting to make his way to the great hall.

"Which couple do you think will get together first, Sirius and Sora or James and Lily?" Peter asked.

"Sirius and Sora, hands down" Remus answered. Peter ginned sensing a bet coming on.

"I'll bet you two galleons on it" Remus answered. Peter shook his head.

"No money bets, those are too boring. How about we say that whoever loses has to walk around school dressed up as a girl for one day" Peter said, his eyes shining wickedly. Remus shook his head, laughing.

"It's a bet then" he said, silently praying that Sirius and Sora would hurry up and get together already. Peter, on the other hand, was thinking the exact same thing, only about James and Lily.

Lily meanwhile had caught up to James as he was crossing the hall. Ashe stopped right behind him, out of breath from chasing after him. James turned around to see her doubled over clutching her stomach.

"All right there, Evans?" he asked her. Lily just waved her hand at him.

"Just a bit out of breath, that's all" she answered.

"A bit out of shape too, buy the looks of it" James said, causing Lily to kick him in the shins. James winced at the dull pain.

"Did you come here to abuse me?" he asked her. Lily straightened up, finally catching her breath.

"No, I came to tell you thank you for the gift. It was very thoughtful and sweet. I also came to apologize for complaining so much about you being Head boy" she said. James frowned for a moment, thinking that she had ulterior motives.

"What do you want from me?" James asked her.

"Nothing! I really just wanted to thank you and apologize" she said. James thought she sounded and looked sincere and nodded.

"It was no problem" James said modestly. He grinned at Lily "I guess this means that you won't kick me out of the dorm?" he asked her. Lily laughed at him.

"I wouldn't be too sure of that yet" she answered, grinning back. Lily noticed that James had gotten quite handsome over the summer. Of course, he wasn't as handsome as Sirius, that boy was just gorgeous. But Lily knew that she and Sirius had no chance. It was clear that he saw her in a totally sisterly, buddy type of way. Lily had decided that year that she would finally give up on Sirius for once and for all. It had been a bit of a school girl crush anyways.

"Do I have something on my face? You're looking at me odd" James said, Lily just shook her head.

"Let's get to the great hall, why don't we?" she asked. James nodded and they both walked towards the hall. Lily had never walked alone with James before and she found the whole experience to be a lot less traumatic that she had always thought it would be. James kept talking and he was so animated in his speech that Lily just wanted to laugh out loud. Maybe James wasn't so bad after all, he seemed to have matured greatly over the past year and he had been nicer to people. Lily decided at that moment, as both of them stepped into the hall, that she would give James a chance this year.

"James" she said to him.

"Hmm" he answered his eyes scanning the hall for the rest of the H6.

"I'm glad you're the Head boy" she said, James looked down at her.

"I know" he said "because if it wasn't for me then you'd be stuck sharing a dorm with the creeper" he said. Lily grinned at him, deciding not to say anything else. Besides this whole situation was scaring her. It was the first day of her seventh year and she was starting to form a crush on the boy who had been her worst enemy for so long. She knew right then that it would be an interesting year.

Meanwhile, Sora and Sirius were at the Gryffindor table, slouched over, out of breath.

"I can't believe we tied!" Sirius cried

"I know, and after I had a head start and everything" Sora moaned. It had been a mad dash to the great hall and Sora had put in everything that she had. But Sirius had decided to play dirty and set up some exploding snaps in front of her to distract her.

"You're a dirty cheater" Sora said to Sirius.

"Spare me, miss. I was desperate" he groaned. Sora grinned.

"It's pretty sad, you know. Having to resort to cheating to beat a girl" she said to him. Sirius raised his head.

"Yeah, but it's different when the girl spends her summers studying in her uncle's dojo" he said. Sora's eyes sparkled.

"Ah yes, I did forget to mention that part" she said. Sirius grinned at her and she grinned back and at that moment they both knew that they liked one another. Not that they would ever say it, both of them were just way too stubborn.

James and Lily joined the Sirius and Lily and both pairs took their seats, waiting for the ceremony to begin. Peter and Remus slowly ambled up to them, eyeing the pairs, both rooting for their own couple to win. Already Remus was creating a plan to hook up Sora and Sirius while Peter was devising a way to get Lily and James together. Little did they know that both of their work was already half way done.

* * *

In Okinawa Japan, Yuki Kaito and Marissa Potter were sitting in the formal room of the sprawling, beautiful Kaito manor. They had both come together to talk about the plan that they had started seventeen years ago.

"This is a perfect way to merge our two businesses together, but I worry" Yuki said, looking over the papers laid out on the tables before him. Marissa looked at him with her cold, piercing green eyes.

"And why is that?" she asked, her tone formal and rather detached, as it always was.

"I worry about the children" Yuki said "I don't want to hurt Sora, she is the only daughter I have" he said softly. Marissa scoffed.

"Their children, who cares about their feelings?" she asked. Yuki glanced up at her.

"Don't you have any worries for your son, Potter-san?" he asked. Marissa smirked at him.

"James will do as I tell him to, as is expected" she said. Yuki shook his head slightly. Marissa's viewpoint seemed very cold and harsh, but maybe that was the ways of western parenting. His mother, and Italian woman, had dies before she could engage in real parenting, and Yuki was only used to the Japanese style. He hoped he wasn't harming his daughter with his constant worry.

"Are you sure this is the best way to go about this?" Yuki asked. Marissa tapped her finger impatiently.

"Listen Master Kaito, we arranged this seventeen years ago" she said.

"I know, but it seemed common then. Now, with how the times have changed I do not know if it is still the best option" he said.

"These situations happen in the business world every second" Marissa said. Yuki looked at the papers one last time.

"Yes, but will the children agree to this?" he asked. Marissa looked at him coldly.

"As I already said, my son will do whatever I tell him to do. I hope that your daughter has enough discipline and respect to do so as well" she answered. Yuki nodded. Marissa had used the two words that were most common in a Japanese household, discipline and respect.

"All is in order then" Marissa said, taking her copy of her papers back.

"That is how it seems" Yuki answered. Marissa nodded her head.

"Don't you go worrying yourself. The Potters and the Kaitos have been trying to marry into one another for generations. Sora and James's wedding will be just what we need." she said.

"I just feel like we should inform the kids about it first" Yuki said. Marissa scoffed.

"Like I said, if your daughter has discipline, she will listen to you." She said.

"But this is a matter love and marriage" Yuki retorted. Marissa shot him her coldest look yet.

"Love and marriage have nothing to do with one another. Our children will get married. They won't love each other but they will be rich. Children are so materialistic anyways. They don't need love, only wealth to be happy" she said, gathering up her skirts and marching out of the room.

**A/N: Ha, so how was that for unexpected? But don't worry, that's only a little preview of the drama that's about to unfold. It's going to be loads of fun from here on, I promise you that.**


	10. A Mysterious Note

**A/N: Okay, so here's the new chapter. It took me longer to get this one up, but I have finals this week and next, so I can't really be blamed. Enjoy this one!**

Chapter 10: A Mysterious Note

The sorting ceremony went without much trouble, as usual. Ever since Sirius and James had stole the sorting hat 7 years before, nobody had tried to pull a prank at the opening feast. Lily was almost dying of boredom by the end of the ceremony, plus her thought hurt from cheering loudly for the new Gryffindors. By the time the dessert dishes disappeared, she was almost falling over, from a mix of tiredness and absolute dullness. She thankfully left the hall, letting the prefects deal with all the new, screaming kids.

After saying goodbye to her friends, Lily nearly ran to her new room, ready to get to bed. She didn't even care where James was, she knew he probably stayed behind to intimidate the first years. She finally reached her room, which was guarded by a giant painting of a dragon that looked more course than fearful.

" Hogswallop" Lily said to the dragon, uttering the password that had been given to her a few weeks back.

"Course 'tis, luv" the dragon replied, his voice skewed with a thick cockney. He swung to the side, revealing a large wooden door. Lily pried the door open and stepped into the room, gasping.

The room was absolutely perfect. The main room was cavernous with a large domed roof with paintings, an almost exact replica of the Sistine Chapel. The room was done in warm gold and scarlet, with a fire burning cheerily in the large fireplace. On the side opposite from the door was a curved staircase that split off in the middle. One pair of stairs led to a wooden door with the words "Lily Evans" written on it in scrolling letters. The other stairs led to James's room. Lily, who had thought that the Gryffindor common room was too decadent, was in awe at the splendor of this one. She quickly went up her staircase and entered her room.

It was a large room with a canopy bed done with golden drapes and an incredibly soft golden carpet. There was a little owl ledge where a beautiful tawny owl sat. Lily, who had never had the money to purchase an owl, though she desperately wanted one, ran over to it. She found a letter on the perch. Opening it she read:

"Lily- thought you might need some company. Congratulations on being made head girl!"

Lily read it twice and shook her head. She knew exactly who it had come from. In her fourth year, she and Sora had become animagi. Sora had taken the form of a black panther, which Lily thought was superbly wicked and she was quite jealous. She on the other hand, had turned into an owl. Sora was a bit jealous of Lily's form, saying that she had always wanted to fly. Both girls had wished that they could have traded, but they got used to their other forms after a while. But Sora knew that Lily had always wanted an owl to keep her company whenever she decided to go out on a flight.

Lily studied her new owl for a while. It was a skinny thing, and a bit taller than ordinary owls. It was also very regal and Lily loved it because it didn't look like any other owl she had seen before.

"You name will be…" Lily said, not quite sure what to name it. She turned the card over in her hand and saw that something had been written on the back.

"I know that you'll never come up with a name for the poor dear, so I took the liberty in doing it for you. His name is Abraham Lincoln". Lily burst out laughing. Sora had come over to the Evan's house once before and was absolutely bewitched by the biography of the American president Abraham Lincoln that her dad had been reading. Sora had thought that he was the oddest looking man she had ever seen. Looking up at the owl, Lily was quite shocked to find that it did indeed a bit like the man.

"Abraham Lincoln" Lily said. The owl cooed in reply. Shaking her head, Lily changed her clothes and got into bed, calling goodbye to her new friend.

Two month passed without anything major happening. Lily got used to her new Head girl duties and being separated from all the other Gryffindor girls. Sora and Alice were common visitors in her dorm and the rest of the H6 were there almost all the time as well, so it wasn't much different than before. Lily also started to get used to living with James. In fact, she had kind of gotten to like it. When it was just them two, James was much more mature and put together. It was like the rest of the H6 was a catalyst for his immature behavior. In fact as time went by, Lily found her minor crush on James growing larger, to the point where she had decided that the next time James asked her out on a date she would say yes.

Sora, on the other hand, had gotten into a bit of a spat with her father before coming to Hogwarts because he had wanted her to go to an incredibly stuffy Japanese magical college after Hogwarts, even though she told him repeated times that she wanted to go straight into auror training. Because of this she had been ignoring all the letters that he had been sending her over the past months. There was way more letters than usual and they were starting to clutter her bedside table. In fact, ever since Lily had left the Gryffindor dorm, there had been nobody to tidy up around Sora's bed. Even the house elves had given up on the girl.

On day, about two and a half months after the start of school, Sora entered the dorm at noon, wanting to get her potions textbook before heading off to lunch. She found Alice on her bed, intently reading a rather thick book.

"Studying?" Sora asked her. Alice looked up in dismay and shut her book quickly. Sora raised her eyebrows and read the spine of the book.

"Calder's Magical Primary School Yearbook" she read aloud. Alice turned a bright shade of red.

"It's nothing" she mumbled slightly, accidentally letting the book slip out of her fingers. It landed on the floor with a loud thud. Sora reached down to get it.

**"Don't touch it!!"** Alice screeched, stopping Sora straight in her tracks.

"What's the matter, mate? It's a primer year book, nothing big" Sora asked. Alice just bent down, scooped the book up, and hugged it to her chest.

"I just don't like people looking at it" she said tightly. Sora looked at her, confused, but decided not to probe into the matter. Everyone was allowed their secrets, after all. Sora just grabbed her textbook and left the room.

As soon as Alice heard Sora go down the stairs, she opened her year book up once more to a certain page that had been opened to so many times that it had started to fade. She traced her finger around the picture that she had traced a million times. She stopped to wonder what Sora would have thought if she had seen this picture.

Sora went to the potions room, where Lily had already set up her cauldron. She went next to her and dumped all of her things on the desks, putting her cauldron on the floor and casually flicking her wand it, starting the fire. She turned over to Lily to see that she was engaged in a conversation with James. Sora smiled to herself, knowing that it was about time that the two got together. They did make a very cute couple. Sora turned to the other side to see the creeper walk into the room, his book bag so full that it looked as though it was about to burst. He was carrying about five textbooks along with a million rolls of parchment in his arms and was trying very hard not to crash into anything.

"Need help, Severus?" she asked, but was rewarded for her kindness by receiving a sharp, cold glare from the boy. Sora shook her head. She knew why the creeper was mad at the boys of the H6, but she never knew why he was also angry at her and Lily. They really had done nothing to him.

"Sora, look at this"

Sora turned around to find Lily showing her a bit of paper. Taking it from her she saw a message scribbled on it.

"I was walking past the charms classroom the other night and found about five first years drinking fire whisky and making a huge racket in it. They go there every night and always make a clamor. It is very disturbing to the Hufflepuffs, whose dormitory is located next to the classroom. It would be great if you could go and check things out."

"I found it in the Head Girl's box this morning" Lily said. Sora shrugged her shoulders.

"I never heard the racket before, but the Gryffindor common room is on the other side of the school" Sora said.

"Nobody has ever complained before either" Lily said. "Do you think I should go?" she asked.

"Yeah- It wouldn't hurt to check it out" Sora said, getting out all of her ingredients. "Why?" she asked.

"I don't know. Something just doesn't feel right about this whole situation" Lily said, looking at the note once more.

"If you feel uneasy about it, take Abe with you. He's been trained to go get help if anything harms you" Sora said, neatly lining up her bottles. Lily nodded slightly and arranged her bottles as well.

"You're right" she said "I don't know why I was getting so afraid over a stupid little note anyways" she said.

That night, Lily put on her purple head girl cloak and made her way to the charms room with Abe sitting on her shoulder. On the way there she caught of Sirius, who was coming out of the library, holding a rather intimidating looking book on Herbology.

"Hey Sirius" she called out. Sirius looked up, saw her, and smiled.

"Hey yourself. What are you doing out so late?" he asked.

"There's been a disturbance report in the Charms classroom" Lily explained. Sirius frowned slightly.

"I just came from the Hufflepuff common room; Abbott and I are working on a Herbology project. I didn't hear anything in the charms room when I went past it" he said. Lily matched his frown.

"Well I guess I should just check it out anyway" she said slightly. Sirius nodded his head.

"Sure, it is your duty, is it not?" he asked. Lily nodded her head. Sirius noted the girl's discomfort and nervousness.

"Do you want me to come with you?" he asked. Lily shook her head.

"No it's fine, you go back to the common room" she said.

"It's no problem really" Sirius said. Lily just smiled at him.

"It's okay, I've got Abe here to protect me" she said, nodding her head to the owl that was now flying behind her. Sirius shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, have fun then" he said, starting to walk away "good night" he called out. Lily watched his receding back until he turned the corner and walked out of sight. She wanted to call out his name and ask him to come with her, but she knew that would be stupid. What kind of seventeen year old girl was afraid of going to the charms room at night? Shaking her head, she walked towards the room.

Upon reaching the hallway, Lily heard no sound, but found the Charms door open.

"False alarm" she said to herself, very relieved that there was nothing to fear. She walked inside the room, just to make sure that nothing was out of place. As soon as she entered the room the door shut behind her and she heard the lock click. Lily looked around, her eyes wide, but the whole room was inky dark. Suddenly a light flickered in the corner of the room. Soon lights were flickering all around her. She found that she was in the middle of a circle of candles. The candles gave off enough light so that she could see the person standing at the other side of the room. Lily gasped when she saw who it was.

"So glad you could join us, Lily dear" the person said walking up to her. Lily found herself immobilized with fear.

"What…what do you want?" she asked, her voice coming out strangled.

"I want something that I will never be able to get while you are here" the person said, coming closer. "So I decided that the only way to get what I wanted was to get rid of you"

Lily's eyes widened and she tried to escape, but her mind and her body seemed to be moving independently of one another.

"What are you going to do to me?" Lily asked. The person just moved even closer, taking out their wand.

"Just relax Lily my dearest" the person said. Then everything went dark.

On the other side of the door, Abe was scratching away at the wood. The door had shut immediately as Lily stepped into the room, locking the owl out. Abe, though, was a highly trained owl and could sense danger when it came. After scratching at the door for a few moments with no prevail, he flew to the Gryffindor common room. The Fat Lady painting saw the owl coming and swung aside for him. Lily was a frequent visitor to the common room and she knew Abe well.

"Came without you master this time, did we dear?" she asked. Abe flew into the common and straight to the door of the girl's dorm. He tapped on the door for moments until a groggy second year girl let him in.

"What in the world?" she asked as Abe flew past her and to Sora's bed. He landed next to the sleeping her and pecked at her head. Sora awoke immediately.

"What are you doing you overgrown fur ball?" she screeched, rubbing her head where Abe had pecked her. Abe on the other hand just flew around her head in circles. Sora immediately knew what was going on.

"Lily's in trouble, isn't she?" she asked. Abe kept flying around her.

"Bloody" Sora muttered under her breath, getting up immediately. She tried to reach for her robe to put over her short nightdress, but found it to be too far away.

"Never mind" she mumbled, running out of the dorm, waking all of the girls up in the process.

"Come on Abe, let's get back up" she said. Abe cooed and flew after her. Sora ran down the stairs, her hair billowing behind her like a blanket of black silk. When she reached the bottom of the staircase she immediately turned and started to head up the boy's staircase. Upon reaching the boy's dorm she tossed the door open, making a loud bank. Most all of the boys woke up in shock, looking around for the cause of the noise. They were more than surprised to see Sora, looking as angry and as worried as sin in the doorway, wearing nothing more than a short nightdress, her hair falling wildly behind her. Sirius, Peter and Remus all looked up at her in wonder.

"What the bloody hell do you think you're doing here like that?' Sirius cried out. Sora just waved him comment away.

"Lily's in trouble" she said. Immediately the three boys were up and the four of them were running down the stairs in a matter of seconds with Abe flying behind them.

"Let's go get James" Peter said, and everybody nodded their head in agreement.

**A/N: Ak, I know I'm a bit evil ending the chapter like this, but I like building suspense. So what happened to Lily? Who is this mystery villain? And how in the world will James react to this all? Stick around for the next chapter and find out….**


	11. A Hunt and a Clue

**A/N: Sorry about taking so long to update. It was winter hols, though, and I went back home to Ireland. I'm back in Manhattan now, so I'll be updating more regularly. Like always, your reviews are very appreciated. Enjoy the 11th chapter!**

Chapter 11: A Hunt and a Clue

Sora had been the first one to reach the room. After giving the password to the portrait of the slightly drunk dragon, she rushed up the stairs leading to James's room and tried the handle, only to find it locked. She pounded on the door loudly until she heard a shuffling of feet behind it. Suddenly the door was yanked open and a very irate looking James appeared.

"Do you know what bloody time it is?" he roared. Sora had to admit that he was quite frightening.

"James, Lily's in trouble" Sora said breathlessly. James's face suddenly turned from rage to worry.

"What? How? Where?" he babbled, confused and anxious. Sora shook her head.

"She showed me this letter today in potions, somebody said that there has been a racket in the charms classroom and she should check it out. I think she was being set up" Sora said. From the bottom of the stairs Sirius gasped.

"I met Lily when she and Abe were going to the charms classroom, about a half hour ago" Sirius said suddenly. "She looked nervous and I offered to go with her, but she said she would be fine" she said.

"Obviously, she's not" James said a bit nastily. Sirius narrowed his eyes.

"James, it is not my fault Lily is in trouble, so don't blame me" he said. James frowned.

"Well, if you had gone with her, she probably wouldn't be in this mess" James said.

"Well if you actually did your patrolling duties and stopped making Lily do all of them, she would never have been out there in the first place!" Sirius answered back. Remus groaned.

"Arguing is not going to help Lily!" Remus said, his voice clipped. "Why don't we just go down to the charms room and find her" he said. James and Sirius looked at him dumbfounded.

"Yeah, good idea" James mumbled, running down the stairs. Sora rand after him and soon, all five of them were running down the deserted halls. Looking back on it, Sora thought it was a miracle that they hadn't been caught. Sora, Sirius, and James (all three of whop were on the quidditch team) were the fastest of the five and made it to the charms room first, only to find it deserted.

"Bloody!" James yelled, kicking the wall of the classroom. Sora looked around the room and gasped. There were candles with half-burnt wicks everywhere.

"What went on over here?" she asked.

"By the looks of it, Lily's captor either wanted to make a dramatic effect or did some very ancient magic" Peter said, looking in wonder at the candles. James paled.

"Ancient magic? But…but that's the most powerful kind!" he said, his voice thick with worry. Remus put a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder.

"Don't worry, Prongs" he said "These candles weren't used in any ancient magic ceremony, they aren't set in any specific pattern" he added. James nodded, feeling a bit better. Remus had been taking an ancient magic course for a few years now.

"But where is she?" James said, looking around the room for clues, but not finding any.

"I don't know, but I will find out before the night is over" Sora said, her tone hard. James looked up at her.

"How are you going to do that?" James asked.

"By covering every single square inch of this school" Sora answered. The boys looked at her oddly.

"But Hogwarts is huge" Remus said. Sora nodded.

"So the sooner I start the better" she answered shortly. James nodded.

"I'll come with you" he said. Sirius looked at the both of them and quickly made up his mind as well.

"I'll come, too" he said, stepping up beside James. Sora nodded at the two boys.

"Then you better be fast to keep up with me" she said, changing into her animagus form, a black panther, and running out the door in a flash of midnight fur. Sirius and James quickly changed into their own forms and followed the girl. Peter and Remus were left standing in the room. They both looked at each other.

"I'm pretty sure me changing into my animagus form wouldn't make me faster" Peter said. Remus grinned.

"I'd have to say your right" Remus said "Plus, I don't have an animagus form" he added. Both boys looked at each other.

"I guess we're on foot then" Peter said, heading out the door. Remus nodded his head and followed.

All five met in front of the Gryffindor room the next morning, each one dead tired and completely worn out from running through the castle the whole night.

Did any of you find anything?" James asked the rest of the group, even though he already knew the answer. Everybody shook their heads.

"Where could she be? We searched the whole castle!" Sirius said. Sora gave him a pointed look.

"Obviously whoever kidnapped her took her outside the castle grounds" Sora answered.

"Then we check all of the secret passageways" James said resolutely. Sora shook her head.

"James, the H6 are the only ones that know about the secret passageways- nobody else could have taken her out of them" she said. James nodded slightly.

"But how else would somebody get Lily out. It's not like you can just walk out of the Hogwarts grounds" Peter said. Remus paled a bit.

"Unless they took her to the Forbidden forest" he said, causing James and Sora to gasp.

"They wouldn't" James said.

"We don't know who we're dealing with, James, they could have taken her anywhere" Sirius answered. James looked as though he was about to faint. Suddenly Sora spoke up.

"This is a very serious problem" she said, stating the obvious "I think in a case like this it's better if we get the help of a professor" she added. The rest of the boys nodded, knowing exactly who they were going to go to.

* * *

Professor Dumbledore was sitting in his office as usual. He normally didn't eat breakfast in the Great Hall, but preferred eating in privacy, while he worked on various reports or other headmaster duties. He usually wasn't interrupted early in the morning and was quite surprised indeed to see the H6 walk in the room, all looking bleary and close to dead with fatigue.

"Heavens, what is wrong with you lot?" Dumbledore asked as the group came into his office. He had built a rather solid relationship with the H6. He was the only professor that wasn't afraid of them, and the H6 found him to be the only professor they actually respected. The H6 were more than glad that he was their headmaster and it wasn't unusual to find one of the H6 members in his office, talking to him about this or that. Dumbledore enjoyed the company of the group (he found them to be fascinating, full of life and energy), but today, something seemed off balance about them. Looking at the kids, he realized that one of them was not there.

"Where is Mistress Evans?" he asked.

"She's gone missing!" James said, his voice quavering a bit. Dumbledore looked at the group intently.

"Since when?" he asked.

"Last night" Sora answered, telling him the whole story. Dumbledore listened to her without interrupting.

"I'm glad you came to me" he said after she finished her story "the matter of kidnapping is not something that you kids should try to deal with alone" he added. The five teens nodded.

"Do you know anybody that would have any reason to want to harm Lily?" Dumbledore asked.

"Well there are those three Ravenclaw girls, Emily, Molly, and Grace. They were my first guess" Sirius said. Dumbledore shook his head.

"Those three girls asked for leave yesterday. They said that there was some type of emergency, but really, the Weird Sisters are playing a concert in Kent and I am almost positive that's where they went." Dumbledore said.

"I don't think there would be anybody else who would want to harm Lily" James said.

"Except the creeper" Sora added in. James's eyes flashed.

"Yeah, the creeper, I bet he's the one who did it!" James said.

"Severus could not have kidnapped Lily. He was serving detention with me until very late last night" Dumbledore said.

"So that's why your lights were on" Peter said. "But if it wasn't the creeper, then who could it have been?" he added.

"Why don't you kids go on to class now" Dumbledore said "give me time to think. We'll meet again during lunch and discuss it further then" he said. James look enraged.

"Lunch! But something terrible could have happened to Lily during that time. We need to find her now!" he cried. Dumbledore gave him a sympathetic look.

"I know this is hard on you, James, but there is nothing we can do until we have a solid plan and suspect. Wearing yourself out now will only hurt Lily's chance of escape. We need to conserve our energy" Dumbledore said "So I forbid you to go and search further until lunchtime. That is final. Go on to class now" he said, his voice kind but strict at the same time. The five teens nodded numbly and started to leave.

"Remus, I believe your first class is with professor Slughorn? I'm heading over to him right now, you can come with me " Dumbledore said before they made their way out the door.

"Oh okay" Remus mumbled, going back.

"We'll walk to class together" Dumbledore said, getting up. "Now the rest of you four go on, you don't want to be late" he said.

Sora, Sirius, James, and Peter all made their way out of Dumbledore's office and into the hallway, no intention whatsoever of going to class.

"I'm going back to my room" James said numbly, turning right at the end of the hallway.

"I'll go with you, mate" Peter said. Sora nodded at him thankfully. James needed the support of his friends right now, but Sora was too dejected to offer it. She knew that James fancied Lily and all, but she had been Lily's best mate since first year and her disappearance had had cut Sora the deepest.

Peter and James left, leaving Sora and Sirius to walk back to the Gryffindor common room.

"You know" Sirius said as they walked. "Lily's disappearance got me thinking. What would I do if…" his voice trailed off. Sora looked up at him.

"If what?" she asked. Sirius stared off blankly.

"What would I do if James was kidnapped" he finished. Sora gaped at him.

"James?" she asked. Sirius nodded.

"Sure, James is my best mate, we've been through everything. I don't know what I would do if he disappeared."

"Yeah" Sora said softly, not showing her disappointment. She had never said it aloud, but she had fancied Sirius since the beginning of their fifth year. She never knew if Sirius liked her back, but she always got the feeling that he didn't.

Sora and Sirius walked back to the common room in silence and as soon as they entered, Sora rushed up to her dormitory and shut the door. Sirius just stared up after her and sighed.

* * *

Meanwhile, James and Peter were sitting on a couch in the Head's common room. James was staring into the fire while Peter was trying to think of something to say.

"She'll be okay" Peter said finally. James just continued to stare into the flames, not moving. Peter sighed.

"Mate, you've got to get a hold of yourself. You brooding won't help Lily" he said. James scowled.

"What can I do to help?" James said, his tone cold. "I don't know who took her, I don't know where she could be, I don't know anything!" he spat.

"Listen, Dumbledore said that he would help her. You have got to trust him" Peter said, lamely. James's frown grew deeper.

"But what if he can't come up with anything? Where can he start?" James cried "Lily could be injured or worse by now!"

"Listen, Prongs, you're not the only one who cares about Lily. We're all worried for her" Peter said.

"You wouldn't understand, Wormtail! Think of what you would be like if you precious little Jenny was kidnapped" James said, causing Peter to pale a bit. Peter was the only one of the marauders with a steady girlfriend, having gone out with Jennifer Thomas, a pretty Ravenclaw girl, ever since fifth year.

"She'll be okay" Peter said again to James. "She'll come back" This time James turned his head and looked at Peter.

"You promise?" he said. Peter nodded his head.

"You have my word on it" Peter said.

* * *

In the Gryffindor girl's dormitory, Sora was lying on her bed, thinking about what in the world she could do to get Lily back. There were no clues to follow but a room full of candle stumps. Sighing, Sora sat up, her eyes lazily scanning the room. For some reason they fell on Alice's bed, where a certain book lay neatly on the bedside table.

Slowly Sora got up and walked over to the book, noticing that it was the primer yearbook that Alice had so forcefully hidden from her the other day. Even though Sora knew it was an invasion of privacy, she took the book and flipped through it.

Sora noticed that there was one page was more faded than the rest, as though it had been looked at hundreds of times. Sora looked intently at the page. There was only one single picture on it as well as some writing at the bottom in a girlish, loopy script that Sora found vaguely familiar.

Sora studied the picture and gasped. There was a depressed looking girl at the side of the picture, no older than six or seven. She was a very ugly looking girl, but those large, amber eyes were very familiar.

"Alice" Sora breathed softly. Sora was amazed at how such a plain, course, and sad looking girl could grow up to be so pretty and bubbly. Alice, in the picture, was looking very forlornly at a boy, about the same age, who was standing about three feet from her, talking to another little girl.

The boy was taller than Alice and had messy black hair, hazel eyes, and a slightly long nose.

"James!" Sora cried, almost dropping the book in surprise. Alice and James had gone to the same primary school! Sora wondered why in the world Alice had never mentioned it before.

Sora's eyes went from the picture top to the writing at the bottom of the page.

"Someday he'll be mine" she read aloud, wondering what in the world that meant. Suddenly, Sora remembered the loopy handwriting. It was the exact same handwriting that was on the note that was given to Lily.

Cursing under her breath, Sora scooped the book up, held it firmly, and rushed out of the room. She ran down the stairs for the second time in the last 10 hours and hurried through the common room, where Sirius was sitting calmly, reading a book. Upon seeing Sora Sirius immediately got up.

"Sora, what happened?" he asked, worriedly. Sora didn't answer, but instead ran out the portrait hole. Sirius dropped his book and followed after her, wondering what in the world happened.

**A/N: Okay, unexpected, wasn't it? Next chapter you'll get to see the extent of Alice's wrath. She's more evil that James used to be, if you can imagine tha**


	12. Two Kinds of Attacks

**A/N: Okay, so here's the next chapter. It's pretty long, so I think it will keep you busy for a while. Ad always please review- it means a lot to me. Enjoy!**

Chapter 12: Two Sorts of Attacks

By the time Sora reached James's common room she was completely out of breath. The tipsy dragon looked at her from his portrait with a worried expression in his eyes.

"Heard that the Head Girl got kidnapped" the dragon said. Sirius, who had run just behind Sora, frowned.

"How in the world do you know that?" Sirius asked. The dragon looked surprise.

"Everybody's talking about it. It's the talk of Hogwarts…"

"Never mind" Sora said sharply. She gave the dragon the password and he swung open, revealing the large wooden door that lead to the common room. Wrenching the door open, Sora scampered into the room, followed by Sirius.

James was sitting on the sofa with Peter, each staring into the fireplace in silence. When Sora came stumbling in the room, James immediately pried his eyes from the flames. He saw the determined and frightened expression on Sora's face and rushed to her.

"Sora, what is it?" he asked, his voice shaking. Sora opened Alice's yearbook and showed James the page that she herself had looked at a minute ago. James scanned the page, his eyes opening wide in recognition.

"Dear Lord, that was Alice?" James said, surprised. Sirius and Peter both huddled round the book, getting a good look at the picture.

"So you remember her?" Sora asked. James immediately turned a bright shade of crimson.

"Yeah, and to tell you the truth, I'd rather not" he mumbled. Sirius looked at him with a single eyebrow raised.

"What in the world did you do to her, Prongs?" he asked. James looked a bit flustered.

"Well, it was a long time ago, back when I used to be really awful" James said slightly.

"James, what did you do to her- this is important!" Sora cried. James looked down at the floor.

"Well you have to understand; back then, I was only about eight or nine, I thought that the Potter family was naturally better than any other family out there. I also thought that that made me better than any other kid out there"

"You still thought that till four years back" Peter said, earning him dangerous glares from James, Sirius, and Sora. Peter shut up right away.

"Anyways" James continued "Alice was a little girl from a not too well off family. She lived with her grandparents in London, in a tiny flat. I always thought she was an odd girl, very annoying, and not quite…well…not very attractive. She was always there, wherever I was, and I made fun of her terribly; many times even going out of my way to be extra evil to her" James finished quietly. Sirius groaned.

"I knew that your wonderful people skills would get us into a load of problems later on" Sirius said.

"Don't rub it in, Padfoot" James growled before turning to Sora "but what does me being mean to Alice during primary school have anything to do with where Lily is?" he asked. Sora pointed to the writing on the bottom of the page. All three boys read it and fell into a stony silence.

"Okay…that's a bit scary" Peter said finally. James and Sirius nodded.

"It's the same writing that was on the letter that was given to Lily" Sora said "I recognized it".

James gave off a loud, rather long string of curse words that caused Peter to cringe a bit.

"So the only reason why Lily got kidnapped is because of me!" James cried.

"No the only reason Lily got kidnapped is because Alice a psychotic maniac!" said Sirius. Sora thought that statement would have been quite funny of not for the grave situation.

Just them Remus entered the room, looking a bit peaky and ashen.

"What's up, Moony, I thought you were supposed to be with Slughorn" Peter said as Remus walked up to them.

"I said I was ill, I couldn't concentrate on anything" Remus said, looking at the book in Sora's hand.

"What's that?" he asked. Sora told Remus the whole story, watching him getting more shocked as she progressed.

"Alice!" Remus said "but that's worse than anybody else!"

"Why?" Sirius asked.

"Because Alice knows all of the passageways!" Sora said, smacking herself on the head. The rest of the boys groaned. Over the years Alice had grown quite close to them and she knew most of their secrets.

"So that means Lily can be anywhere!" Peter said. Sora and James looked crestfallen.

"We should go to Dumbledore" Sora said, but Remus shook his head.

"He said not to come to him until lunchtime, remember." he reminded. James reached for his cloak.

"Well I'm going out to find her"

Sora looked up at James and saw the resolute look in his eyes. She then looked around at the other boys and saw that they had the same look in their eyes.

"We'll all come with you" Sora said. Everybody nodded and once again set out on their search. They went over to all the secret passageways and talked the painting or statues that were guarding them. All of them said that nobody had passed through the passageways in the last day.

Around lunchtime the H6 walked down the hall, all looking crestfallen and dead tired. All the students that walked by them whispered among themselves. James could hear snippets of their conversations.

"Poor H6, look at them!"

"It's Lily"

"disappeared, kidnapped they say"

"what if she ran away"

"why would she do that?"

James shook his head and continued to walk down the hallway. He looked next to him and Sora, who looked lost in thought.

"What if she's in the kitchen?" Peter said. The rest of the group looked at him blankly.

"Well we checked everywhere else!" Peter said, defending his argument.

"Wormtail, if Lily was in the kitchen I am sure the house elves would have told Dumbledore by now" Remus said.

"We haven't checked all of the passageways" Sora said darkly.

"What do you mean?" James asked.

"We didn't check the one that leads to the Shrieking Shack" she said.

"Yeah, but I don't think Alice could get through the Whomping Willow. She's not small enough" Sirius said. The rest of the boys nodded. They walked in silence until they reached Dumbledore's office.

Their meeting with Dumbledore was quite disappointing. The showed him the book and told him all they knew. They also mentioned that they had searched all the passageways, which riled the Headmaster a bit- since he had forbade them from continuing with their search. By the time lunch was over, they were no where further from where they had started.

"Listen, Alice seems to be more vindictive person that we imagined. I can tell you children to not go look for her alone, but I know you will not listen to me. So instead, I urge you to use good judgment. I also want to warn you, Alice might have spies working for her in the school. If you plan to go after her, do it at night time. Right now I advise you to rest. All of you look like you're dead on your feet. Especially you, Remus- are you alright?" Dumbledore said. Everybody looked at Remus, who did indeed look very faint and ill.

"I'm just really tired" Remus said softly. Dumbledore smiled at the five children in front of him and went to the door of his office to open it. One by one the teens filed out of it. Sora, who was last in the line, faltered back a bit.

"Professor" she said slowly. Dumbledore looked down at her.

"What is on your mind, Mistress Kaito" the old man asked her, a kindly smile on his face.

"Well, I was wondering if there could be any way that Alice could have gone through the Whomping Willow passage. It's the only passageway that we have not checked yet." She said.

"I'm sure that she could have" Dumbledore answered simply. Sora nodded and walked out the door.

"Good luck, Sora" the headmaster said the girl. Sora turned around.

"We're going to get her back" she said.

"I have no doubt of it" Dumbledore said, smiling, as he shut the door behind her.

* * *

That night, Sora slipped out of her dormitory and snuck outside to the Whomping Willow. She reached the tree only to find James standing in front of it, examining the large plant with curious eyes. 

"How in the world could she have gone in?" James asked as Sora drew up near him. Sora didn't bother to wonder how James had known that she was there. She just stood next to him and examined the tree as well.

"Maybe she hit it with a spell" Sora said. James shook his head.

"There's no spell that could do that" he answered.

"Maybe she knows one we don't" Sora said. Once again James shook his head.

"Alice might be different than we thought she was, but she isn't smarter. If she was she wouldn't have let that book just lie on her bed like that" he said. Sora shrugged. Looking around she found a rather long branch near the tree, half covered in dirt; as though some daft person had tried to hide it but had failed miserably.

"Um, James" Sora said lightly.

"Yeah?"

"You know how you just said that Alice isn't that smart?"

"Yeah…"

"I believe you know" she said, pointing at the branch.

"Bloody hell, I didn't think she would be that slow" James said, looking at the branch. He took it and held it up. It was the perfect length to use to press the knob that would open the passageway.

"Well, I guess we can't be complaining" James added, taking the branch and opening the passageway, avoiding the tree's violent jerks. The passageway opened.

"Okay then, I'll guess we'll go in" James said, but was stopped by Sora placing a hand on his shoulder.

"James look" she said, pointing to the field past the tree. James looked over to find Remus walking around, rather lethargically.

"What's up Moony?" James asked. Remus looked over at him and started to walk over. Only then did James see the blank look in his eyes.

"Oh gods" Sora said. Suddenly Remus started to twitch, his body contorting in odd angles. He fell on the ground in a heap. Immediately James and Sora looked up into the sky. It was a full moon.

"How did we miss that?" James asked.

"We must have been too preoccupied with Lily" Sora answered.

"But wouldn't Remus know?" he asked.

"He probably thought it would just be an extra problem for us. He didn't know we were going to be out here tonight" Sora said. Remus got up, but now, though, was in his wolf form. He looked over at the two teens and started to run towards them, full gallop. He seemed to be heading right towards James, who just stood there, staring in fear. He could hear Sora shout something but did not hear what it was. Remus was barely two feet away from him now. He jumped, teeth bared, and James reached for his wand, knowing it would be two late.

Suddenly, a flash of black fur whammed into the side of Remus tossing him to the ground. James saw Sora, who had transformed into a black panther, lying beside the large wolf. In spite, Remus scratched Sora, leaving a nasty cut on her side flank, and ran off.

Sora changed back into human form and examined the cut, which was on her forearm. It was quite a deep wound and she was bleeding terribly. Silently, Sora tore off a part of her robe and held it up to James.

"Tie this around the wound tightly" she said shakily. James took the cloth and tied it up.

"Thanks for saving me" he said. Sora just waved off his thanks, wincing in pain.

"You go get Lily" she said to him.

"What about you?" James asked. Sora looked at him pointedly.

"There is a rabid werewolf lurking around the school unchecked. I need to go make sure he doesn't get in trouble" Sora said, changing back into her panther form and walking away, limping a bit. She turned her head around at James and winked, a sign of saying good luck. James waved to her weakly before making his way down the passageway.

James would have rather had Sora with him when he went to go rescue Lily, but he knew that he could take on Alice by himself. He reached the end of the passageway and crawled out the hole into the Shrieking Shack.

"How nice of you to join us, James" a voice called out. James looked up to see a very odd looking Alice. She had a very evil expression on her face that contorted her features and made her look as ugly as she had in her yearbook picture. James immediately took out his wand and pointed it at her.

Alice just smiled and shook her head at James. From among the shadows, she pulled a chair up next to her. In the chair, looking very frightened indeed was a bound, tied up Lily. Alice casually pointed her wand at the redhead.

"You hex me, and Lily kicks the bucket" Alice sated smoothly.

"You wouldn't dare!" James cried, eyes narrowing. Alice just laughed at him.

"Of course I would, you daft boy!" Alice said "I've meant to do it all along, I just wanted you to be here for it" she added. James eyes grew big.

"You knew I was going to come" he said slowly "you left the book there on purpose. This is all a trap!" he realized. Alice laughed once more.

"Well done, James. Though I must say it took you a lot more time than I expected" Alice said. She looked around.

"I also have to say, I expected Sora to come as well" she said. James looked at the girl with the most utmost disgust.

"She ran into werewolf problems" he said shortly. Alice frowned.

"Oh, and I so looked forward to taking care of her as well" she said. James growled at her.

"Why are you doing this, Alice?" James asked. Alice just glared at him.

"I am doing this James because of you" she cried. James looked confused.

"James Potter, you have avoided me for far too long. I loved you in primary school, but you dismissed me. You said I was too fat, too ugly, too annoying and shy" she bit. "So I left school. I got a complete makeover. I got a new face, dropped all my extra weight, started to be outgoing, started to be smarter- all for you! Then I came here and what happened! You didn't notice me again, no matter how many times I flirted with you or how many times I tried to be with you! No- all you ever saw was this filthy little mudblood! Well now, I'm getting rid of her James, and you will have no choice but to love me!" Alice yelled. James looked at her in shock.

"I will never, ever love you- no matter how many people you get rid of" James snapped. Alice's eyes flashed in the dark light.

"You'll regret saying that, James" she said, her tone cold "you will love me"

"I will not, not now, not in the future"

Alice looked at James darkly and pursed her lips.

"If that is the way you want it" she said tightly "I did not want to go this far, James, but you have forced me to do this"

Alice raised her hand and snapped her fingers. From in the shadows appeared about five large men (muggles it seemed), who all looked as though they wanted to kill James.

"If you will not listen to my words, I have to use force" she said simply, smiling. She nodded to one of the large men, who went up to James and struck him across the face.

"Bloody hell!" James cried out, reaching for his wand.

"You fight back, and I will kill Lily" Alice said, holding the wand straight to Lily's temple. James stood still, dropping his wand on the ground.

The large man hit James once again and he stumbled back a bit. Lily cried out, but the bind covering her mouth muffled out her words.

The rest of the men came up and started to beat up James as well. From her place in the seat, Lily kept yelling and kicking, but to no avail. The more she struggled, the harder Alice pressed her wand to her temple. Lily looked at James, who was getting beaten to a pulp and felt her heart break. Angrily she looked up at Alice, who was observing the scene with a look of amusement. Suddenly, Lily had an idea. It was a painfully simple idea that Lily knew probably wouldn't work, but she knew she had to try it anyway.

Moving all of her weight to one side of the chair, Lily started to rock the chair. She kept rocking it until it toppled over, straight onto Alice.

For a moment, Alice didn't know what had happened to her. She shook her head a few times, and pushed Lily and the chair off of her. It had only taken her a moment to get up, but in that time James had managed to reach for his wand and stupefy all of the large men. By the time Alice stood up, James had pointed his wand towards her.

Without hesitation, James stupefied Alice, who crumpled to the ground. He could have loved to kill the girl, but he would rather have Dumbledore take care of her.

Rushing over to Lily, he unbound the girl, who fell in a heap next to him, breathing deeply. She looked at James, who was greatly bruised and bleeding from a cut that he had received on his forehead. Lily, who had been captive for over a day, been bound to a chair, and kept in cold, damp conditions with no sleep or food; took one look at James's injuries and burst out into tears. She had taken as much as she could in this past day. James on the other hand, looked bewildered.

"Lily, what's the matter?" he asked her. Lily looked up at him.

"Why, James?" she asked him through her tears.

"Why what?"

"Why didn't you fight back, you big dolt? Look at you, beaten up and bruised. Why didn't you just fight back!" she cried.

"Because then Alice would hurt you!" James said.

"That wasn't your problem, that was mine. You could have died, the way they were beating you. Why in the world you choose my life over yours?" she asked. James looked at her for a long while, the shaking, sobbing girl in front of him. Why had he done that? The same question came into him mind and he answered it right away, no hesitation.

"Because…because I love you" James answered, his voice shaking a bit. Lily just burst out into new tears and clutched the front of James's cloak, sobbing into the velvet. They two of them just sat there for a while like that, until it looked like Alice moved a bit.

"Come, Lily, we need to take her to Dumbledore before she wakes up" James said. Lily nodded, finally seeming to get a hold of herself. She helped James pick up Alice (who surprisingly didn't weigh too much at all) and they carried her out of the passageway.

As they left the passageway, James saw that the sun was just coming up.

"We weren't in there for that long were we?" he asked. Lily shook her head.

"We were in there for pretty long" she answered slowly. Suddenly from the forest a large wolf ran out, his claws rather bloody.

"Remus!" Lily cried as the wolf ran around and them collapsed, withering. "I think he's changing back"

"Where's Sora?" James asked. Then, as to answer his question, a large panther came walking from the woods. James gasped. Sora had large gashes all over her and was walking painfully slow. She saw James and Lily and tried to run over to them, only to collapse halfway there. James dropped Alice on the ground and ran over to Sora, who had changed shape back into her human form. Her arms and legs were covered in deep gashes and she had a rather nasty scratch on her cheek.

"Dear lord" James cried, scooping the unconscious Sora into his arms. She was bleeding quite badly, and form the looks of her extra pale skin, had already lost a lot of blood. James knew that the girl was in grave danger.

"Lily- get Alice to Dumbledore. I have to go to the infirmary!" he cried, running towards the school.

"Don't you dare die on us, Sora" James whispered to the girl as he ran.

**A/N: Okay, so how was that? The big questions now- will Sora live?? Does Lily love James back? All will be answered in the next chapter...**


	13. Worries and Love

**A/N: Sorry I didn't get this posted before. It's just that second semester started and all my teachers seem to feel as though they need to drown me with work. I hope you like this chapter though. Enjoy!**

**Chapter Thirteen: Worries and Love**

James got Sora to the infirmary with much difficulty. He was bruised terribly and his side hurt so awfully that it was a labor just to breathe. Plus this was added to the fact that James had an exceptionally low pain tolerance and he had never been as badly hurt as he was then. By the time he reached the infirmary, Madam Pomfrey was already out and about, ready for another day of maladies.

Madam Pomfrey had just been through one of the longest nights of her life. She had been up well past midnight trying to fix up a student who had been jinxed to think that he was a unicorn. It had taken all of her might to stop him from eating all of her bed sheets. So when James came into the infirmary so early in the morning, Madam Pomfrey couldn't help but give out an irritated sigh.

"What have you been up to now?" the nurse asked irritably as she turned around. But as soon as she saw James, bruised and holding what seemed to be a large, bleeding object swathed in cloth, she immediately became worried and rushed over to the boy.

"James Potter- what have you done to yourself, so early in the morning at that? You're scaring me half to death walking in like tha…Dear Lord! Is that a body?"

"It's Sora, Madam Pomfrey. She's lost a lot of blood and her pulse is faint" James explained quickly, holding out the limp girl in his arms. The nurse took one look at Sora and paled. She gently took her from James and put her gingerly on the bed.

"What in the world were you lot up to?" she asked, casting a few spells on the girl to stop the bleeding, with not much prevail. James quickly told the nurse the whole story (of course, leaving out the part where Sora transformed into her Black Panther form). As soon as Madam Pomfrey heard that Sora's wounds had come from Remus she started to bawl.

"Oh, it's all my fault, really! I usually accompany Remus to the Shrieking Shack the night of a full moon. Its just last night I had so much to do and I thought that he would be fine on his own. I should have known something like this would have happened!" she cried.

James, who had never seen the nurse cry before, was much taken aback. He quickly stated that Sora getting as badly hurt as she was actually his fault, seeing as though he left her alone to fight off a huge werewolf after she had already gotten hurt.

Madam Pomfrey, on the other hand, just shook her head sadly and looked down at the girl. She then got up and walked over to James.

"Let's look at your injuries now" she said, examining the boy closely and sticking him with the end of her wand, causing him to squeal like a girl in pain.

"Lots of nasty bruises, a few shallow cuts, and two broken ribs" the nurse muttered, more to herself than to James. She mumbled a few spells and then gave him a mug full of evilly boiling green potion than burned its way down James's throat, making him shake and sputter.

"You should feel much better now dear" the nurse said "but you still need rest, and maybe a cup of chocolate" she said, disappearing into her office for a second and returning with a steaming cup of cocoa. James politely took that cup from her, even though he didn't really care for the taste of chocolate much. He wasn't that much of a sweets person; that was Sirius.

"Now sit down and drink up" Madam Pomfrey said sternly, pointing to a bed. James immediately sat down and the nurse nodded her head, turning her complete attention to Sora. James sat on the bed for about five minutes and then got up.

"I'm going to go now, Madam" he said slowly. The nurse just waved at him, too distracted by taking care of the girl in the bed.

"No quidditch!" James heard the nurse cry out as he slipped out of the infirmary, running to go tell the rest of the H6 what had happened during the night.

* * *

By the time first classed rolled by, everybody in the school knew about how Alice had kidnapped Lily, James had bravely rescued her, and how Sora was now lying dying in the infirmary after saving James from a terrible beast (the rumor was that it was a rouge centaur, thirsty for blood. It made for a pretty good story, actually). 

Remus was the first person to go visit Sora. He entered the infirmary looked ashen and ill. When he looked own at Sora's pale form he turned green, and Madam Pomfrey had to rush to fetch him a chair so that he could sit down in.

"Is…is she going to turn into…" Remus started to ask.

"A werewolf? No, luckily, she was just scratched, not bitten. But werewolf scratches are rather odd. They don't heal like normal ones. They really don't stop bleeding that much either. I've had to give her blood replenishing potions every twenty minutes" the nurse said, looking sadly down at the girl. Remus also looked down at Sora, feeling terrible. Madam Pomfrey put a consoling hand on the boy's shoulder.

"There was nothing you could have done about, my boy" she said simply "you had no control over your actions. We all know that you wouldn't have done it on purpose. She's one of your best friends after all"

But that statement just made Remus feel even worse. Sora was one of his best friends. She had trusted him and he had repaid her by mortally injuring her. Remus made a pact with himself right there that he would never, ever let anybody but his existing friends get close to him again, he was just too dangerous.

"If you need any help, I'll be willing to do whatever it takes" Remus said to Madam Pomfrey. The nurse just smiled kindly at the boy.

"I don't need anything at this moment, dear. And all that Sora needs now is some peace and quiet"

But unfortunately, peace and quiet were two things that Sora would not get that day. Every moment the girl had another visitor coming in (in Sora's extreme case, Madam Pomfrey only let one visitor in at a time) bearing get well gifts and well wishes.

The students all showed their approval for Sora's actions by bringing her gifts. Soon the girl's bedside table was so full that well wishers had to put their presents on the floor beside the bed.

The teachers however, showed their approval in other ways. Professor McGonagall, who was usually so strict, awarded James ten points because she approved of the way that he was walking down the corridor. And nobody in the history of Hogwarts would forget Snape's face when Professor Slughorn tearfully told the class about how Sora was the best potions maker that he ever had the privilege of teaching.

In fact, by noon, the whole school was ringing with "Sora fever", everybody speculating about whether she would live or not.

"What I'm worried about is whether she'll be able to play quidditch again after this or not" Frank Longbottom, captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team said solemnly at dinner.

"It would be a shame to loose such a great beater" Alice Hornsby, the keeper, replied.

Of course, this constant gossip was doing absolutely nothing to help the nerves of the H6. Lily had spent a good hour in the infirmary, crying over the unconscious figure of her friend until Madam Pomfrey literally had to throw her out of the infirmary.

"How do you expect the girl to get any better with you weeping all over her like that?" the nurse asked the shaking red-head, disgruntled. Lily went straight to the Heads' dorm after that, not to emerge again for the rest of the day.

Peter came to visit Sora at lunchtime, carrying a bouquet of orchids, Sora's favorite flowers. He placed them on her bedside table and gave her a few encouraging words, though he did admit that he felt a bit choked up looking down at the frail girl lying in the bed. Peter wasn't used to seeing Sora in the way that she was now, pale and nearly lifeless; and he had to admit that he probably would have been better off never seeing her like that. Seeing someone a hair's breath away from death was quite frightening to the boy.

Sirius was the last one to go and visit Sora, having to build up the courage to go see her. He entered the infirmary at about four, a huge, stuffed Black Panther doll under his arm. He went over to the bed at the farthest end of the room and slowly looked down at the girl in it. Sora was many shades paler than she normally was, a sick, ghostly white caused by severe lack of blood. Her eyes were closed and her arms and legs were wrapped in new bandages. Her pale lips were stained bright red from the gallons of blood replenishing potions that had been forced into her, and there was a long, thin cut on her right cheek. She looked like a ghost, and Sirius was at a loss of words.

"It's no good just staring at her. She's not going to wake up that way" Madam Pomfrey said, hustling over to the girl, cleaning the cut in her cheek.

"Sora…is…is she going to live?" Sirius blurted out. Madam Pomfrey raised both eyebrows.

"At this point- there really is no telling. Professor Slughorn is mixing up a potion that should be able to cure her. It'll be done in about eight hours. If she doesn't wake up by tomorrow morning, we'll have to send her to St. Mungos" the nurse said solemnly. Sirius felt quite faint and collapsed into the chair next to her bed.

"So all we can do now is wait?" he asked. The nurse nodded gently.

"Maybe you can talk to her. I don't know if she'll be able to hear you- but maybe just hearing her friend's voice would help her" Madam Pomfrey said. Sirius nodded and immediately started to babble on. He asked her to get better, begged, pleaded, even threatened at one point, but besides giving out a few, random, shallow breathes, Sora never answered him once.

Sirius kept on talking to her for hours, missing dinner and the rest of his classes. He kept on talking to her even when Professor Slughorn came with his potion, and helped Madam Pomfrey administer it to the girl. Sirius talked himself to sleep that night, finally falling into a troubled rest at the foot of Sora's bed.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the Head Dormitory, Lily was sitting on the sofa, staring resolutely into the fire. James entered the room, carrying a rather large plate filled to the brim with food. 

"You missed dinner, so I brought something for you" he said, dropping the plate in front of Lily. The girl didn't even glance at the food.

"I'm not hungry' she said. James frowned.

"But I brought you all of your favorite things, chicken and those little bread rolls, and Yorkshire pudding…" he said. Despite herself, Lily cracked a little smile.

"What are you, some kind of stalker?" she asked. James shook his head, sitting next to her on the couch.

"No- I've just eaten every meal with you since fourth year" he said. Lily nodded her head. The H6 always sat together for lunch, in fact, the only time that they had ever really been separated was during the holidays and now- when Sora was in the hospital and each of them took turns visiting her. The thought of Sora, though, sobered Lily up right away. She once again looked at the fire, miserable.

James caught the depressed expression on Lily's face and knew he didn't have to ask what caused it. Sora's injury had been hard on all of them; but James knew that Lily would take it the hardest. She had known Sora since first year, after all.

"Listen, Lily..." James started to say. Lily just held out her hand.

"Please don't try to comfort me James, it won't work" she said.

"Why won't it?" he asked. Lily just looked at him.

"Do you even have to ask that James Potter?" Lily snapped. Sora's condition had put Lily in a nasty mood and her temper was rising. "How could you possibly comfort me when you have never faced a hardship in your life? Everything has come easy to you. Whatever you want, you have! You haven't had a trouble in the perfect little world of your. You're James Potter- the golden boy- the king of Hogwarts- the insanely rich child with no problems. How can you ever hope to empathize with me? What has happened to you to give you that right?" Lily said, nearly hysterical. James looked at her in shock.

"Are you saying that I have never had any troubles before?" James asked.

"Of course you haven't!" Lily answered. James started to get angry as well.

"Lily, what do you call what happened yesterday? I stayed up the whole night with the H6 scrounging the whole goddamn castle to find you. We skipped all the meals, tirelessly checking all of the passageways in and around the school. Then, when we did get the right passageway, I went in only to find you bound to a chair with a psychopath threatening to kill you. Are those not troubles?" James asked. Lily was at a loss for words.

"I…I'm sorry" she said softly. James scowled.

"Don't be, I'll just let you to your grieving then" he said simply, starting to get up. Lily felt absolutely horrid.

"James, really, I don't know what came over me. It's just that Sora being so sick, and I haven't really gotten time to recuperate from that whole kidnapping thing, I…I guess I'm just tired" she said, a bit lamely. James seemed to understand, though. He sat back down beside her.

"You're right. I guess we're both tired" James said. He looked into the comforting flames and felt his eyelids start to close. "Maybe we should both get some sleep" she said before his eyes closed fully and his head rolled to the side a bit. Lily almost laughed. James must have been dead tired.

Lily looked over that the boy next to her. He really did look quite peaceful when he was sleeping, all traces of arrogance gone from his face. Lily smiled and brushed some of the jet black locks out of his face.

"You may the daftest, most arrogant boy that I know" Lily whispered softly to him "but I really do love you"

"You know I'm not asleep yet" James whispered back. Lily turned as red as her hair and immediately got up, embarrassed. She rushed up the stairs, head in her hands, and James chuckled softly below before drifting off into a deep, happy sleep, a smile playing on his lips. She loved him.

* * *

Sirius woke up the next day with a start, not knowing where he was. He looked around wildly before placing the stark white walls and beds of the infirmary. He also realized that he was sleeping in one of the infirmary beds, for some odd reason. Shaking that fact out of his head, Sirius immediately turned towards the bed, only to find it empty. The boy turned his head towards Madam Pomfrey's office, to find the nurse, counting blankets in the closet next to it. 

"Where is Sora?" Sirius asked. Madam Pomfrey looked up, startled.

"Dear me, I didn't know that you were awake. You gave me such a start" the nurse said, turning around.

"Where is Sora?" Sirius asked again. Madam Pomfrey smiled kindly at him.

"I released her this morning" the nurse said. Sirius looked at her blankly.

"This morning? But what time is it? How long have I been asleep?" he asked. The nurse just looked at him with a soft smile.

"Well you kept waking up that night I gave Sora that potion so I thought I would give you a bit of sleeping draught. It turns out that you have a stronger reaction to the draught than most students. I wrote that down in your file, though, just incase I ever need to give it to you again." She rambled.

"But how long was I asleep for?" Sirius asked. The nurse tapped her chin with her finger.

"Well I gave Sora the potion on Tuesday and today is Thursday afternoon" she said. Sirius groaned a bit. The nurse looked at him again.

"Sora came to visit you just an hour ago, but I told her to lunch; she should be there now" Madam Pomfrey said. Sirius nodded and got up, rushing out of the infirmary.

Sirius turned the corner on his way to the Great Hall when he collided head on with somebody who was walking down the hallway.

"Watch out there, kid, you could hurt someone you know" a familiar voice said. Sirius looked up to see Sora looking at him, eyes sparkling. Sirius's face immediate split into a wide grin and he hugged the girl tightly.

"Glad your alive, Sora" he said. The girl laughed slightly.

"Must say I am too, it wouldn't have been at all fun to die" she answered.

"You know, you really shouldn't joke about death like that" Sirius said. Sora mock pouted.

"Have mercy on me good sir, I just got released from the infirmary. Spend a whole day with Hawk Eye Pomfrey hovering over you making you drink vile potions every hour and you'd be cynical about death as well" Sora answered, causing Sirius to grin despite himself.

"So where are the rest of the H6?" Sirius asked. Sora smiled slightly.

"Ah, well, James and Lily are probably off strolling around somewhere- trying to keep their reputation as Hogwarts' new hot couple" Sora said, causing Sirius to look at her, mouth opened wide.

"Hogwarts' new hot couple?" he asked in a strained voice. Sora nodded.

"Apparently they finally noticed that they fancied each other and decided to go out. It took them long enough" she said.

"They fancied each other?" Sirius asked. Sora groaned.

"God- are all boys so daft?" she asked.

"But what about Remus and Peter- don't tell me that they are a couple now too" Sirius said. Sora gave out a short laugh.

"Nah- sorry to disappoint you- but Peter and Remus have no such feelings for each other. They are off dress shopping at the moment" she said. Sirius looked at her questioningly.

"Dress shopping? For whom?" he asked.

"For Remus. And don't give me that look, Sirius. Remus isn't gay. Apparently he and Peter bet about something and he lost. Now he has to go around school all of tomorrow dressed as a girl" Sora answered. Sirius groaned.

"I was asleep for one day and I miss all of this? Lovely" he said. Sora shrugged her shoulders.

"Welcome to Hogwarts, love" she said.

* * *

As Sora and Sirius continued to chat, a boy entered Hogwarts, flanked on one side by Hagrid, the gamekeeper. The boy was wearing a tailored robe and his sandy blonde hair fell perfectly to his shoulders. 

"The Headmaster's office is just over here" Hagrid said- pointing to two gargoyle statues.

"Thank you master Hagrid" the boy said, his accent marred by a strong, Scottish lilt.

"Dumbledore's been 'specting you fer a while now" Hagrid explained as the two of them walked up the staircase that led to the Headmaster's main office.

"Yes, well family business kept me away for longer than I expected" the boy said as they reached the top. Dumbledore was standing at his desk, looking at the door as Hagrid and the boy emerged from behind it.

"Ah- mister Potter, I was wondering when you would show up" the old man said. From in the doorway, Adrian Potter smiled at the headmaster.

"Sorry I was late, sir, but mum fell ill before I was supposed to come. She is quite fine now" he said. Dumbledore nodded.

"Have you been sorted yet?" Dumbledore asked. Hagrid answered for him.

"He has. Put him in Gryffindor" the giant man said. Dumbledore smiled slightly.

"Ah- the same house as your cousin. He's quite the talk around school" Dumbledore said. Adrian nodded his head.

"So I've heard. Though I'm not surprised. James manages to be the center of attention no matter where he is"

**A/N: So how was that? Next chapter you get to see Remus all dressed up in his finest girly fashionsas well as learn more about this Adrian Potter. As always, please review. Thanks a lot!**


	14. Only Fools Play with Love

**A/N: I am soo sorry for not updating sooner- but this chapter took quite a while for me to write. But I believe that this one is my longest chapter yet, and it is chock-full of drama and such, so I hope that it was worth the wait. It will keep you busy for a while, I can tell you that! Well- enjoy this chapter! It really was a labor!**

**Chapter Fourteen: Only Fools Play with Love**

"You can't possibly expect me to come out like this?"

James, Peter, Sora, Lily, and Sirius all stood in front of the door to the boys' dormitory, large, expectant smiles on each of their faces.

"Come on Moony, you know the bet" Peter said, grinning extra wickedly, thankful that he hadn't lost the bet instead.

"I agreed to the dress- not to the purse and the bows and the jewelry" Remus moaned. The rest of the H6 looked at each other, trying not to laugh.

"Just come on out, mate, stop the suspense" Sora said. There came a groan from the other side of the door.

"Don't worry, Remus- we won't laugh" Lily said.

"Speak for yourself" James retorted. Lily swiftly silenced him with a sharp punch to the side.

Slowly, the door creaked open. All five teens craned their necks to see the boy on the other side.

Standing in the doorway was…a surprisingly pretty girl. Sora, James, Lily, Peter, and Sirius all stood their, gaping, at Remus. He was wearing a floor length pink and gold dress with his shoulder length hair tied up in two, large pink bows. He was wearing various pieces of jewelry, including snap on, dangling earrings.

"Oh…my…" Lily said, breaking the awkward silence. Then James started to snicker, Sirius joining him. Pretty soon, the H6 (minus Remus and a very vexed looking lily) were all on the floor, rolling, shaking with laughter.

"Oh grow up, you lot!" Lily said for the sake of Remus, though on the inside, she too was quite amused.

"Come on, Lils, you can't pretend like this isn't funny!" Sora said, gasping for air.

"It's not that bad" Remus muttered, his face turning a bright red.

"Not that bad! Moony- you look like a contestant in a beauty pageant!" James cried as Peter began to warble out something that sounded vaguely like some sort of pageant music.

"Stop it!" Lily cried. Sirius nodded his head in agreement.

"Seriously, Wormtail, your making my ears explode" he said. Peter promptly hit him on the head with his wand.

"That's not what I meant…" Lily said lamely, attempting to tackle Sirius, who was trying to curse a pig tail on Peter.

"Let's just go out and get this over with" Remus said, unenthusiastically, walking towards the portrait hole, leaving the fighting, giggling group behind him.

"Wait for us Moony!" Sirius cried, quickly forgetting all about Peter and Lily. The rest of the H6 all got up and followed Remus out of the common room, huge smiles on their faces. Even Lily, who was the most sympathetic of the bunch, couldn't help but grin at Remus's get up. He really did make a rather fetching young girl…

By the time the H6 reached the Great Hall, the school was in a buzz about the "new girl" in school.

"Who is that lass with the H6?"

"I can't tell- never seen her before"

"She's a fox- ain't she?"

"Yeah, but why is she wearing such fancy clothes and jewels?"

"Who cares- look at the size of those jewels, she must be loaded!"

"I'm never going to get over this, am I?" Remus groaned after the seventh person came up to the group dying to be introduced to him.

"No way, Moony" James said, grinning widely. Remus just frowned into his eggs, picking at his bracelet.

"You girls wear too many…things" he moaned, motioning to the necklace and earrings.

"Ah, don't complain, Remus. You're lucky actually" Sora said. Remus looked at her in disdain.

"Lucky? How in any way am I lucky?" he cried.

"Well, you actually make a very pretty girl. It makes it easier on you. Could you even begin to imagine one of this lot in a dress and jewelry?" Sora asked, pointing her fork towards James, Peter, and Sirius, who seemed to be having a contest over who could wolf down the most bacon in five seconds.

"Wro? Ush?" Peter asked, mouth full.

"Point taken" Remus said, glumly, actually wishing that he too could take place in the contest. He may not look like it, but he could tuck in bacon fairly well if he did say so himself.

"Never mind, just try to get through today" Sora said, trying to be encouraging, but failing. Comforting had never been one of Sora's strong points.

"Oh…my…god" Lily whispered suddenly from next Remus. Sora looked up at her friend, only to find her staring, mouth open, at the entrance of the Great Hall. She followed Lily's eyes and gasped.

"My, who do we have here?" Sora asked, looking at the boy standing in the entrance.

"He's…he's gorgeous!" Lily whispered, her hands flying immediately to her curly hair, trying to fix it into place.

"Lily, remember James" Sora said lightly. Lily immediately sobered, and the glassy look in her eyes disappeared.

"Yeah, your right" Lily said, quickly bringing her hands back into her lap. "But he is rather easy on the eyes"

And so the boy was. He had dirty blonde hair that fell gracefully to his shoulders in a messy, effortless way, framing a sculpted face and two of the largest, longest lashed hazel eyes ever seen in the walls of Hogwarts. He walked in a casually confident way and when he smiled half the girls in the room melted. He was… beautiful, there was no other way to describe it.

"I think he's coming here" Lily whispered. Remus looked up, finally noticing that the two girls next to him were having a conversation.

"That guy looks familiar somehow" Remus said, looking at the new boy.

"We've never seen him before" Lily said. Remus just shook his head and nudged Sirius, who was sitting on his other side.

"Sirius, look at that kid- I remember him from somewhere" he said, Sirius looked up from his food at the new boy and sucked his breath in.

"Oh bloody…" Sirius whispered.

"What is it?" Remus asked.

"That's Adrian Potter" Sirius whispered furiously, casting an apprehensive look at James, who was deep in conversation with Peter about something or another- completely oblivious to the boy walking over to them.

"Wait, wait, Adrian Potter as in the infamous cousin that James's is always griping about?" Lily asked. Sirius nodded his head gravely.

"The same Adrian Potter that James told us last week that he would hex into oblivion in he ever saw again?" Sora asked. Once again, Sirius nodded his head.

"Well this is going to be buckets of fun" Remus said, wolfing down the rest of his breakfast in case James turned the table over in anger like he had done their second year when the eggs were too cold.

"Think we should warn James before he comes over here?" Lily asked, looking worriedly at James.

"Oi James!" Adrian called loudly.

"Too late" Sirius said, covering his ears.

James turned his head towards the person who had called him, smiling, obviously expecting it to be one of his other friends or admirers. His eyes fell upon Adrian and ever so slowly, the smile slid off his face and was replaced by a look of horror and disgust.

"Glad to see me, cousin?" Adrian asked, smiling widely at James, eyebrows raised. James just gaped at the boy, who casually walked up to them and sat in the seat next to his cousin, promptly kicking out the second year boy who had been sitting there before.

"A…Adrian?" James stuttered, still shocked.

"As sharp as always I see" Adrian said lightly "are you going to finish that, I'm starved?" he asked, before taking James's plate of bacon and tasting a piece.

"What the hell are you doing here, Adrian?" James asked, his shock beginning to ebb away and be replaced by fury.

"Always so confrontational, cousin" Adrian said, munching on another piece of bacon. "I enrolled here, if you must know"

"Enrolled, here? But what about that French school you went to? Beaubuttons" James sputtered.

"It's Beauxbatons, idiotic cousin" Adrian drolled "and I felt like a change of scenery. France is nice and all, but there are only so many sun drenched beaches and delicious food a person can enjoy before it starts to get dull. I felt like coming back to the homeland- breathing some good old fashioned Scottish air"

"Good old fashioned Scottish air, my foot! You just came here to torture and ridicule me! Mother sent you- didn't she?" James asked. Adrian scoffed.

"No, Aunt Marissa did not send me- I came on my own volition. And I did not come for torturing or ridiculing either- you know how much I adore you cousin" Adrian said, grinning widely. James opened his mouth, but was cut off by Sirius.

"Been sorted yet, Adrian?" the boy asked. Adrian turned towards Sirius and smirked.

"Ah, Sirius, I was wondering when I would be seeing you. Are you still living with James here, or have you finally gotten enough money to afford your own place? I know how much real estate costs in these parts, especially for the…less fortunate of us" Adrian said, sounding sympathetic, though his eyes clearly gave another message.

"Affording a place was never the problem with me, Adrian. And besides, I bought myself a nice flat next to my cousin's at the beginning of this year" Sirius answered.

"Oh…a flat. I've read about those. They are supposed to be quite quaint, I've heard" Adrian said sweetly, before turning his eyes over to Lily, Sora, and Remus.

"Now, who is this lovely little lady?" Adrian asked, beaming at Lily, who immediately flushed red despite herself.

"You leave Lily alone you little bugger!" James growled. Adrian looked over at his cousin with eyebrows raised.

"Oh…girlfriend?" he asked. James nodded his head proudly. Adrian looked once again at Lily, smirking.

"She suits you" he said simply before turning his head towards Sora.

"Are you another one of James's girlfriends?" Adrian asked.

"That is disgusting" Sora said icily, before turning her cold, blue eyes on the boy. "Sora Kaito" she said plainly, her words dripping with malice. There was something about this Adrian kid that bothered Sora greatly. She could see why James hated him so much.

"Ah, miss Kaito. Aunt Marissa has spoken about you before. Honor to finally meet you" Adrian beamed, holding his hand out. Sora stared at it for a good minute before finally shaking it.

"Maybe you could show me around the school" Adrian asked the girl. Sora looked up at him, her own smirk plastered on her face.

"Maybe…later" she answered. Adrian nodded his head.

"Touché, dear" he said before turning his large eyes on Remus.

"Now, this little lady looks a bit familiar. Have you brought her home before, James?" Adrian asked. Remus turned a ferocious shade of red.

"That's Remus Lupin, you've seen him a few years ago, Adrian" James said, Adrian raised his eyebrows.

"Well, I guess everybody has one of those friends" Adrian said, smiling slightly.

"I lost a bet" Remus mumbled, still a blinding crimson.

"You keep telling yourself that, love" Adrian said.

"Hey listen, no need to be so rude" Peter said, angrily. Adrian turned to him.

"Ah Pettigrew, nice to see you again as well. You've lost a bit of weight I see, did that fat girlfriend of yours dump you?" he asked. Peter turned as red as Remus and said something quite nasty under his breath.

"Say that again, Pettigrew" Adrian said.

"Ah, leave them all alone, you prick" Sora said loudly. Adrian turned towards her and smiled.

"I don't think you were part of this conversation, Mistress Kaito" Adrian asked. Sora glared at him.

"I don't think you were ever wanted in this group" she said softly "so if you know what is good for you, you will leave, Master Adrian" Sora said.

"Listen here, I…"

"I think Sora asked you to leave, Adrian. You should listen to her" Lily said suddenly, green eyes narrowing. Adrian looked at both the girls, eyebrows raised.

"And why would I hold Mistress's Kaito's words in such high respect?" Adrian asked.

"Because I'm guessing you'd like to survive" Sirius said coldly, looking straight at the boy. Adrian looked at Sirius for a moment and then broke out into a nasty smile.

"Ah, so this is how it is" Adrian said softly before turning on his heels, leaving the Great Hall and a group of vexed teens behind him.

"Not that great of a people person, is he?" Sora asked lightly.

* * *

Adrian, after he left the Great Hall, swept into the owlery, the wheels in his head turning. He called his owl down to him and took out a piece of parchment and a quill out of his pocket. He touched the tip of the quill to his lip for a moment and then started to scribble a letter. 

Dear Aunt Marissa,

I arrived at Hogwarts- no troubles there. I followed your directions and they worked perfectly, the big oaf put me into Gryffindor without me even trying on the hat. Now I can keep an eye out on James and Sora for you, just like you asked. It seems as though James has found himself a girlfriend, Lily Evans. The idiotic large man told me that she was a mudblood- which is just what we need to complicate this whole situation. I can take care of her if you so wish. Sora, on the other hand, has no boyfriend as far as I know, but that Sirius Black obviously fancies her. I can remedy that rather easily, though. Everything here is under control for right now. Write back at your earliest convenience.

You're Nephew,

Adrian

Adrian read over his letter once and smiled, tying it onto the claw of his owl and watching her fly out into the night sky.

"Better get some rest, I've got a long day ahead of me" Adrian said to himself before leaving the owlery.

* * *

By the end of the week, everybody in the school knew two things- the new boy Adrian was taking the H6, especially James, up in a storm and that he had a fancy for Sora. The first thing was rather unusual. Ever since Sora and Lily had managed to rile the Marauders, nobody (besides maybe Alice Catton) had managed to surprise the group since. So of course, the rest of the school had a wild obsession with him. Of course, the fact that he was gorgeous helped with that obsession as well. 

The second thing was a bit more subtle and entertaining to the Hogwarts crowd. By the end of the first week, Sora couldn't even walk down the hallway without being bungled by some sort of request from Adrian for her to go on a date with him.

"It must run in the family" Lily told Sora one day after she helped her escape from a dozen lawn gnomes who were singing an odd ballad to the girl in the middle of the hallway about how much Adrian loved her.

"He is a major jerk- but I can't help but feel a bit flattered" Sora said as a shower of red heart confetti fell un top of her head "and a little annoyed".

"It is a bit cute- no matter how much of a snob he is" Lily said, clutching on to a pink and white teddy bear that Sora had thrust at her after finding it on her bed that morning.

Plus, Sora thought, but wouldn't admit to Lily, she sort of liked Adrian fawning after her because it looked like he was making Sirius a bit jealous. Ever since Adrian had showed up, Sirius had been very moody and sullen, especially around Sora. At first the girl thought that he was sulking over the fact that Adrian had called him poor; but now Sora wasn't quite so sure about that. Sirius had never shown any signs that he had liked Sora, but the girl couldn't help but wistfully hope that maybe all of the attention she was receiving from James's cousin was making him envious. Fancies and wishes, that was all.

"It's free period. The rest of the H6 are probably hanging around outside, do you want to go" Lily asked Sora.

"Yeah- hopefully out there we can escape from those things" Sora answered, pointing at the lawn gnomes, who were creeping over to them again. Her and Lily dashed through the corridor and headed outside, the gnomes hot on their tale.

When they stepped out into the sunshine, Lily immediately saw the boys sitting under their favorite tree, throwing things at one another.

"They're over their" Lily said, pointing at the tree. Her and Sora headed towards it and crashed on the floor next to where James and Remus were sitting. Peter was a few feet away brandishing his wand ferociously as he tried to practice a new spell and Sirius was sitting in the tree branches, lazily reading a book.

"You know you have glitter heart confetti in your hair" James said lazily to Sora, who cursed loudly and shook her head, trying to get the hearts off.

"I'm guessing that had something to do with Adrian" James asked, eyebrows arched.

"Of course it does! You've seen the way he's been acting all week!" Lily said to him.

"And I'm guessing those things also have to do with Adrian" Remus said, smiling lazily, pointing to the group pf gnomes who were making their way to the tree, croaking out their wonderful melody. Sora groaned and hid her head in her hands.

"Not them again" she whined.

"Again?" asked Peter, who had given up on his practicing.

"They have been following Sora all day. It's getting to be pretty annoying now" Lily answered.

"It always been pretty annoying" Sora snapped, frowning. "I wish that I could just talk to him and straighten everything up"

"Well. Speak of the devil" James said, looking over at the castle, which Adrian had just come out of.

Adrian looked around, spotted the H6, and beamed. He walked over to them in his confident gait, his perfectly tailored robes floating behind him. James looked like he was about to hurl.

"What do you want, Adrian?" James asked icily as the boy reached the tree.

"Nothing to do with you, little cousin, don't fret. I just wanted to talk to Sora" Adrian said calmly.

"Yeah, what do you want to talk her about?" Sirius asked from his place in the tree. Adrian looked up at the boy and smirked.

"I do not see how this concerns you at all, Sirius. You just go back to your reading. God knows you need all the help you can with your school work. And on that note, you better go back to practicing your charms, Peter. The professor did comment on them quite dreadfully last class" Adrian said, turning his head towards Peter, who blushed a ferocious shade of red.

"They weren't that bad" Peter mumbled. Sora rolled her eyes. All of this pointless bickering between Adrian and the boys was starting to wear her down.

"What did you want, Adrian?" Sora asked. The boy, suddenly remembering that Sora was sitting a foot away from him, turned his head towards her and smiled.

"Well, I would rather talk to you in a place that is a bit more…private" he said, sweeping his eyes across the cord under the tree.

"I rather like it here and don't want to move" Sora said lazily "if you are going to say something to me, I'll have to ask you to just say it here"

Adrian smiled at her. Perfect, he thought, everything was going as planned.

"Well, you know that this weekend we have our Hogsmede trip. I was wondering if you would like to go get lunch with me then" Adrian said. Sora looked at him through narrowed eyes.

"Get lunch with you as in…"

"As in a date" Adrian answered, all calm confidence.

As soon as the words left Adrian's mouth, there was a loud crash behind Sora. She turned around to find Sirius on the ground, apparently

He had just fallen out of the tree and was now laying on the ground, letting out a long, rather horrible string of curse words out. Sora refrained from rolling her eyes.

"Well the thing is Adrian…"

"Sora will never go out with the likes of you!" Sirius blurted out, interrupting the girl. Both Sora and Adrian turned around and stared at him.

"What?" Sora asked. Sirius nodded his head.

"Sora has much better tastes than you, Potter. She's holding herself off for someone worthy of her" he said, Sora just gaped at him.

"Sirius Black, are you trying to tell me what not to do?" she asked. Sirius looked at her incredulously.

"You can't mean to tell me that you were considering going out with…with Him!" Sirius cried. Sora scowled at him and turned back to Adrian.

"Adrian, I would be honored to go on a date with you this weekend" she said promptly before glowering at a shocked Sirius and leaving in a huff. Adrian just smiled to himself. Everything was working as planned. Sora was flaming mad at Sirius and he was now going out with Sora- which meant that no other guy could either. He had promised his aunt that he would keep Sora and James uninvolved with other people, and he now was keeping one half of the bargain. Working on James would be next.

* * *

Adrian's and Sora's date was horrible, in Sora's opinion. He really was as conceited and fake as he seemed. He might be a gift to the eyes, but he was weary to the soul and she really did not care for him much. Adrian on the other hand, had a lovely time on the date. He had spent the whole time talking about his favorite subject, himself. So at the end of the day, he asked Sora out again, making sure they were in front of Sirius when he did so. Sora reluctantly accepted, but that was only after she saw Sirius's face. 

"Can't you see I'm doing this to knock some sense into you, you big dolt?" Sora thought furiously in her mind- but Sirius remained as aloof as ever. Soon Sora and Adrian where the new big couple in Hogwarts, even surpassing James and Lily. But then again, why wouldn't they? Adrian was known to be the most gorgeous, mysterious boy in Hogwarts and Sora was the most unattainable girl in the school- them becoming a couple was a match made is gossip heaven. Only Lily knew how miserable Sora really was dating Adrian.

"If you hate him so much, why are you going out with him?" Lily shrieked at her friend one day.

"It's complicated" Sora muttered in return.

"But you hate him!" Lily cried

"And you hated James!" Sora retorted.

"Yeah, well I grew to love him. I don't see you growing to even stand Adrian!" Lily answered. Sore just sighed and left the heads' room, telling Lily that she had to get some rest. It had been two and a half weeks since she had been going out with Adrian and the boy sucked all the energy out of her with his constant ramblings about himself. Sora found that she just needed some time to herself and went to her secret place on the astronomy tower where she stood for a few moments, just staring off into the distance, the chill of the late November air freezing her to the bones.

Sirius wandered up the tower about an hour later, just when Sora was thinking about going back to her dormitory and sleeping.

"Oh, you're up here" Sirius said lamely once he saw Sora.

"Um, yeah, but I think we should go- it's going to rain soon" Sora said back, equally as lamely. The air had been getting thick though.

"It's not going to rain" Sirius said. Sora just stared at him.

"Yes it is" she said

"No it's not"

"It is- I know!"

"Prove it!"

Suddenly the first light droplets started to fall, quickly picking up pace. Sora looked at Sirius, her eyes dancing with mirth.

"Proved it" she said lightly, smiling despite the fact that she was getting quite wet. Sirius just stood there and scowled, becoming equally drenched.

"I really should be going, though. Long day tomorrow" Sora said, starting to walk away.

"Date with Adrian?" Sirius asked, tone hard and bitter. Sora turned around to look at him.

"Actually I do have a date with him" she said, trying to sound happy, though she was actually revolted with the thought on the inside.

"Do…do you even like him?" Sirius asked Sora, his face contorted. Sora turned to him and tried to smile politely, though it came out more like a grimace.

"Adrian is always very polite to me and he likes me a lot" she answered, which caused Sirius to let out a frustrated sigh.

"Yeah- but that doesn't mean that you like him!" he said impatiently. Sora looked up at him and scoffed.

"Why does it even matter to you if I like him or not? Why would you even care the least bit?" Sora asked, her voice rising a bit. Sirius just stood there, mouth shut firmly. Sora walked up to him, the rain soaking her through- though she really didn't care.

"You…you shouldn't be with someone you don't like" Sirius said flatly, simply. Sora let out a mirthless laugh.

"Well who do you want me to be with Sirius? You? Do you want to hear me say that I like you? That I've liked you all along? Well fine then- wish granted. I love you. I've loved you ever since fourth year! There I said it. But why does it matter? You don't even care about me and you never will! I was this close to giving up on you, Sirius Black, but…"

Sirius cut her short by sweeping down and kissing her firmly. It shocked the daylights out of Sora, but she couldn't say that she wasn't pleased. When they finally broke off, Sora didn't know whether to slap the boy or kiss him again.

"I've been meaning to do that since third year" Sirius said to the girl wistfully. Sora looked up at him in shock. Then she punched him square in the shoulder.

"Ow! Why did you do that you mad woman?" Sirius cried, clutching his shoulder.

"That, my dear, was for the torture I suffered through these past two and a half weeks dating Adrian to make you jealous" Sora answered, laughing despite herself. Even Sirius managed to grin widely, though his shoulder was smarting.

"Ah, so that's what it was. Stupid idea, really" Sirius said. Sora just smiled.

"Well it ended up working, didn't it?" she asked.

"Oh, why it did, didn't it. Remind me to thank Adrian for that" Sirius responded.

"You can do that later" Sora answered, a large grin creeping up on her face.

* * *

By the time the two teens went back to the common room, they were completely soaked through, but beaming despite it. Sora raced up the steps to her dormitory, a large, silly grin on her face that she couldn't seem to get off (not that she wanted to or anything). By the time she showered and dried herself off, the clock read 10 o'clock; which surprised the girl, who felt like she had stayed up for much longer than that. 

But despite the long day that she had, Sora felt too keyed up to go to sleep. Instead she opened the drawer on her bedside table, in hopes of finding a good book to read. Instead, her eyes fell on a large pile of unopened letters from her father, the last one coming just at the beginning of the week. Just a few hours ago, Sora had been angry at her father (still about the whole college issue), but now she felt too happy to really be angry at anything. So, in an amicable mood, Sora decided to finally open one of her father's letters and read it.

She took the latest letter and opened it up, eyes scanning over the words once, then twice before she finally got the full meaning of it. Her stomach sank and she suddenly felt quite queasy. She looked down at the letter and the same three words jumped out at her "you", "James", and "engaged". She read the whole letter once more through and did the first thing that came to mind.

She screamed.

**A/N: Ah, so how was that for a chapter? In the next one you get to see how Sora and Sirius- as well as the rest of the H6- react to this shocking bit of news. And let me just warn you- the biggest new turn in this story will be coming up in the next chappie! As always, please review- I love hearing from you. Thanks a lot!**


	15. An Unexpected Solution

**A/N: Okay, this chapter is a bit shorter than what I usually write- but this time something so major happens that I felt that it should just be by itself. So in this this chapter- there is really only one big thing happening- but it's a huge thing, so don't worry about a lack of drama. Enjoy!**

**Chapter 15: An Unexpected Solution**

Sora's scream woke up Alice Hornsby, the only other girl in the room (It was a Friday night- most other girls were still out). Alice was the keeper on the quidditch team and her and Sora had always been good friends.

"What's the matter, Sora?" Alice asked groggily, rubbing her eyes.

"N…Nothing" Sora stuttered, her eyes still glued to the letter in her hands.

"You wouldn't scream if it was nothing. I may be tired, but I'm not daft" Alice said, sounding dreadfully tired. She had stayed up quite late the night before working on a potions essay and had decided to cancel her date with Frank Longbottom (her current boyfriend) and get a goods night sleep. Sora, had she been in her right mind, would have felt quite sorry for the girl.

"The best night of my life just got completely ruined" Sora said with a heavy heart. Alice nodded sympathetically.

"Well my night wasn't so great, either" she said in a lame attempt to cheer Sora up. Alice liked Sora, and she thought that the girl went through way too many troubles. She had just been realized from the hospital two weeks ago and now she had something else on her plate.

"I…I need to talk to the group" Sora said, getting up quickly. Alice nodded her head. If anybody could help her now, it would be the rest of the H6.

Sora called good-bye to Alice and raced down the stairs, grasping her letter firmly in her hands. Once she reached the bottom, she turned and raced up the steps to the boy's dormitory. Sora felt an odd sense of déjà vu and realized the last time that she had raced up these steps Lily had gotten kidnapped, James had been beaten up badly, and she nearly died. Sora prayed that this time things would be less…violent.

Sora reached the door of the 7th year boys' room and pounded on it. The door was open seconds later by a confused looking Frank Longbottom.

"Oh, hi Sora!" Frank said brightly to the girl, once his bewilderment was assuaged. "If you're looking for Adrian, he isn't here right now"

Sora thanked heavens that Adrian wasn't there. That was one less problem to deal with.

"No, I wasn't looking for him. I actually wanted to speak with the boys" Sora said to Frank. She didn't have to elaborate what she meant by "the boys"; everybody knew about the H6.

"Sure, come in" Frank said, opening the door wide, letting the girl in. "They're playing exploding snaps on Peter's bed" he said, pointing to the three boys who were very much into the game they were playing.

Sora walked up to them quickly, but they didn't notice her until she slammed her letter down in the middle of their game board.

"What the…oh, it's you" Remus said, looking up at the girl. Sirius opened his mouth to say something sarcastic, as usual, but he caught one look at the fury in Sora's eyes and sobered.

"What's wrong?" he asked the girl, concerned. Sora just wordlessly pointed to the paper lying on the game board. Sirius picked it up slowly and read it, his eyes growing wider as he scanned the words.

"You must be kidding" he whispered when he finished.

"Do you really think I would kid about something like this?" Sora asked. Sirius just shook his head.

"What's going on?" Peter asked. Sirius handed the letter to him, a miserable expression on his face. Peter read the letter in shock and then promptly handed it over to a very perplexed Remus- who was equally as taken aback by the news.

"Does James know about this?" he asked. Sora just stared at him.

"If James knew about this- don't you think he would have make a huge ruckus about it?" Sora asked. Remus nodded his head slightly. It had been a pretty stupid question.

"So what do we do about it?" Peter asked.

"Should we tell James?" Remus asked.

"I don't see why not, this affects him too" Peter answered. Sora just looked over at Sirius, who had been silent the whole time.

"Do you think we should go to James, Sirius?" Sora asked. The boy shook his head.

"James isn't really good with these types of situations. He'd just go throw a temper tantrum and then sulk" he said. Sora couldn't help but think it was true. James might have matured greatly since their third year, but when he was upset he still reverted back to his old, childlike ways. It was a bit cute, really, but totally unhelpful during emergency situations.

"So what do we do?" Remus asked, looking Sirius. Sirius was usually the ideas guy. He came up with all the plans and the rest of the group figured out how to execute them. Remus could almost see the wheels in Sirius's head turning….

"I have an idea" Sirius said suddenly. Sora looked up at him.

"What is it?" she asked. Sirius, instead of answering, just stood up and put on his long, black school robes.

"Are you planning on going out somewhere?" Peter asked, confused. Sirius nodded his head.

"Where are you going?" Sora asked. Sirius just tied the sash on his robe and nodded towards her.

"Come with me" he said simply. Sora didn't have any idea what was going on, but she stood up next to him- ready to follow him wherever he would lead her.

"We won't come back until very late" Sirius said to Remus and Peter before taking Sora's hand and leading her out of the room, down the staircase, and through the portrait hole.

"Where in the world are we going, Sirius?" Sora asked as he led her down the hall.

"Hogsmede" Sirius answered simply. Sora's mouth dropped open in shock, and she would have stopped completely right there in the hallway if Sirius hadn't been practically dragging her by the arm.

"Hogsmede? Why in the world would we go there? I don't think nicking sweets will help us right now" Sora said "plus I think all of the shops will be closed by now"

Sirius ignored Sora's words and led her through the passageway that led out of school into the small town. Sora usually didn't allow herself to go anywhere unless she knew what the plan was- but she trusted Sirius and she knew that she would follow whatever decision that he would make. Sirius wouldn't lead her to harm, and she felt safe with him.

Hogsmede, surprisingly, was still pretty lively by the time Sora and Sirius arrived. Sora had been quite wrong when she said all of the shops would be closed; instead, most of them were still brightly lit and full of customers. Sirius led Sora down the main street and suddenly stopped in front of a bookstore.

"Wait right here, I'll be back in a minute" he told Sora, before leaving her and going into a shop next to the book store. Sora leaned to the side to read the shop's name. It was a jewelry store.

"Why is Sirius buying jewelry at a time like this?" Sora cried, thinking that the boy had definitely gone mad.

Sirius came out a few minutes later, a small bag in one hand. He motioned for Sora to follow him once more.

"What did you have to buy that was so urgent?" Sora asked "and you still haven't told me why we are in Hogsmede!"

Sirius just shook his head. Sora could tell by the expression on his face that he was deep in thought. He walked for a few more blocks before making a sharp right turn and continuing down a small street with no one on it.

"Where…where are we going, Sirius?" Sora asked as the buildings became more spread apart and dark. She felt a bit more wary now that they were on this deserted road and felt a sudden urge to go back to the main street with its lights and people.

"I'm not leading you to any danger" Sirius said, trying to calm the girl.

"I know that. I just usually like to know where long, dark roads lead to" Sora answered. The two walked for about fifteen minutes before Sora finally saw a small, dimly lit building in the distance.

"What is that place?" she asked. Sirius kept walking at his same pace.

"Our destination" he answered simply. Sora knew better than to ask anymore questions. She just followed him up a small, yet steep hill, until they reached the building. Sora looked at it in wonder.

"Why…this is a chapel!" Sora cried, looking at the small, yet very pretty building.

"Yes it is" Sirius said calmly. Sora looked at him in wonder.

"Did you feel like we needed some divine intervention?" she asked, completely shocked and confused. What did Sirius think was at a chapel that could help them?

"Well I can't say that some divine intervention wouldn't help, but that's not what we are here for" Sirius answered, suddenly sounding not so calm.

"Then what are we here for?" Sora asked him. Sirius shuffled his feet a bit.

"Sora- do you love me?" he asked. She looked at him in utter confusion.

"Of course I do, Sirius. But stop changing the subject! What are we doing here?" she asked once again. Sirius just looked at the ground.

"I mean, do you really love me?" he asked. Sora just looked at him oddly, becoming more confused by the second.

"Yes" she answered. It was the truth but she didn't see how it had to do with anything. "I do love you, but how is that going to solve the fact that James and I are engaged?" Sora asked. Sirius just opened the jewelry bag and showed her what was inside. Sora looked in, then back at Sirius's nervous face, and everything began to make sense.

"You…you…" she stammered, not able to get the words out. Sirius took out one of the items in the bag- a perfect, beautiful ruby and gold ring.

"Diamonds seemed to boring for you- so I thought I would go for house pride" he said. Sora didn't even glance at the ring, but instead just stared at Sirius.

"You…you…" she stuttered again, not believing what was happening.

"Well, I just thought that you couldn't marry James if you were already married" Sirius said. Sora continued to stare at him.

"You can't be serious!" she finally cried. Sirius turned a deep shade of red.

"If you don't want to…I'll understand. It was a stupid idea anyways" he mumbled.

"It's not a stupid idea! It's just…we just got together today! Are you willing to make such a big move?" Sora asked. Sirius looked at her resolutely.

"I am" he said "I know it's a bit fast, and I know that we just got together today but…but I can't let you marry James. I've been working up the courage to tell you I loved you since third year and now that I have I can't loose you this easily" he said, his tone final. Sora looked at him for a bit longer before breaking out into a bit smile.

"So you're sure about this?" she asked.

"Yes" Sirius answered

"Hundred percent sure?"

"Yes"

"You'll have no regrets in the future if we do this?'

"None whatsoever"

Sora just nodded her head slightly.

"Then I say yes" she said lightly. Sirius beamed.

"Let me warn you- I don't remember birthdays that well. And I don't like Valentines Day and anniversaries. I'm not that big into the whole lovey-dovey hearts and pinkness and such" Sirius said. Sora smiled.

"Will you ever cheat on me?" she asked.

"No" he answered immediately with that final, hard-set tone of his.

"Then I don't need lovey-dovey"

So Sora and Sirius were married in the back of the quaint chapel, under the stars. Him in his black school robes, her in her long, old-fashioned white night dress, holding a bouquet of wildflowers that grew in the church garden that the pastor was nice enough to let her pluck. It was informal, it was rushed, it was spontaneous, and it was more perfect than either one of them could imagine.

Once in a lifetime- you find the person that you are so perfect to be with that you know you could never be content with anyone else. Sora and Sirius found that in each other and their wedding was done with no regrets and no worries. They were together, and that was all that mattered.

After the wedding, Sora and Sirius strolled down the streets of Hogsmede, hand in hand, everything seeming more bright and more cheery than every before. Neither one of them could stop grinning.

"You do realize that our honeymoon will be in the dungeons, don't you? We have double potions with Slytherin tomorrow" Sora said, smiling. Sirius laughed.

"Ah- honeymoon with Slughorn. What else could you want?" he asked.

"A noose to hang myself with" Sora answered, causing Sirius to laugh all over again.

"What will the rest of the H6 say when they learn about this?" she asked.

"Well we'll find out tomorrow" Sirius answered.

"Yes, we'll worry about them then" Sora said, dreading the next morning, but looking forward to it to, because tomorrow would be her first, official full day of being Mrs. Sora Kaito Black- and the thought of that was quite exciting.

"This night has been absolutely perfect" Sora said wistfully as her and Sirius passed by a rather rambunctious bar with various, screaming people tumbling out of it.

"You took the words right out of my mouth" Sirius answered.

**A/N: I know you never saw that coming! But, it does create a lot of new drama. How will the H6 and Adrian react to this whole situation? But more importantly, what will Mrs. Potter do? I'm working on the next chapter right now so hopefully I'll get it up soon- it'll be a fun one! As always, please review- I love to hear what you guys think about my insane story. Thanks!**


	16. Parties and Threats

**A/N: So I got this chapter up pretty fast- it was fairly easy to write. Now you get to see the H6's and Mrs. Potter's reaction to Sora and Sirius's marriage. Enjoy!**

**Chapter 16: Parties and Threats**

Sora and Sirius spent the night outdoors, on a little hill overlooking Hogsmede. It was a quaint place, a beautiful place, in fact, and they didn't really want to go back to Hogwarts just yet.

Sora was the first one to wake up the next morning. She sat up and looked at Hogsmede below her and Sirius next to her and smiled, completely content. Then she remembered that they still had classes and, with the way the sun was shining brightly overhead, they were probably late for them.

"Bloody potions" she whispered furiously as she shook Sirius awake. The boy sat up, looking quite confused and drowsy.

"S' time to get up already?" he asked, his eyes still closed. Sora just shook her head. And to think that he was usually the early riser…

"Sirius, come on, we're already probably late to class and I still need to change into my school robes!" Sora said, pulling the boy up to his feet. Sirius shook his head a few times before clearing it.

"I need coffee" he said, groggily as the two began their walk back to Hogwarts.

"What you need is two more hours of sleep…but coffee will do" she said, summoning up a cup of it and handing it to him. Sora wasn't much of a coffee drinker herself, she much preferred tea, but she knew that Sirius was addicted to the stuff. Sirius took a few, long sips of the steaming hot liquid and smiled.

"I love you" he said to his mug. Sora pouted.

"I should feel jealous, you know…"

* * *

Sora and Sirius weren't actually as late as they thought they were. By the time Sora finished changing into her school robes and the two rushed down to the Great Hall, most of the students were still finishing their breakfasts. Sora and Sirius saw the H6 sitting at their usual table, whispering among themselves, looking worried. They made their way to the table, wondering how in the world they were going to break the news to their friends.

"Oh thank heavens, you guys are safe!" Lily cried as Sora and Sirius reached the table.

"How could you to go missing and worry us like this!" Peter said, his tone surprisingly serious- which was very unusual for him.

"You said you would be back late, so Peter and I stayed up waiting for you. We were worried sick when you didn't show up- especially after that whole Alice incident" Remus said, rubbing his tired eyes.

"Dear Lord, you people are worse naggers than my mum" Sirius said, which was saying a lot, seeing as how his mum's favorite hobby was nagging…screaming was a close second.

"But we are really sorry that we kept you up all night" Sora added in, noting the almost dead expression on Peter's face.

"Where did you guys go to anyways? And it better be someplace good after all the worrying we did over you" James said. Sora and Sirius just looked at each other and shrugged.

"First of all, did Remus or Peter tell you about the letter?" Sora asked. James shook his head, confused.

"We didn't want to tell him anything- in case Padfoot's plan didn't work out" Peter said, fishing the letter from his bag "but I did keep it with me"

"Good move there" Sora said, taking the letter and handing it to James.

"I don't see how this explains anything" James said, taking the piece of paper.

"Just read the letter, Prongs" Sirius said. James did just that, letting out an odd roar of rage as he finished.

"I am going to kill that woman!" James sneered.

"Who?" Lily asked, trying to pry the letter from James's hands.

"My idiotic mother! She's always going around trying to make me miserable" he said, as Lily managed to take the letter away from him and read it. Her eyes grew huge and her mouth opened in shock.

"You're engaged to Sora!" Lily cried out, so loudly that it silenced the whole Great Hall.

"Well…he was engaged to me" Sora said, suddenly aware that everybody in the hall was now listening to their conversation. Oh well, she didn't expect any sort of privacy anyways.

"So you mean Padfoot's plan did work" Remus asked.

"What plan?" James asked, looking at Sirius.

"Well, I came up with a plan to try to fix this mess since you and Sora can't possibly get married" Sirius said.

"You're damn right about that! I'd never marry Sora…no offense to you are anything" James said to the girl.

"None taken. I feel the same way" Sora answered.

"So did your plan work?" Remus asked Sirius again.

"Well, yes it did" Sirius said "thankfully. I would have been quite embarrassed if it hadn't" he added.

"Oh, so if I had said no you would have been just embarrassed…not depressed or heartbroken" Sora asked, eyes shining.

"Well sure, I would have been those other things…but mostly more embarrassed" Sirius answered, grinning "Imagine what it would have done to my self esteem"

"What are you two talking about?" Lily asked. "Is the problem taken care of or not?"

"Oh it's taken care of. For good" Sora said. "I can't marry James if I'm already married"

The silence that followed that statement was very scary. Everybody in the Great Hall, including the professors, just sat and stared at Sora and Sirius.

"Wait, what, married?" James asked, breaking the silence. His confusion was written clearly on his face.

"Yeah, married" Sora answered, trying not to laugh at the bewildered expressions her friends had on their faces.

"Married to who?" Peter asked.

"Whom. Married to whom" Lily said, automatically correcting Peter's mistake. Even at times like this, Lily was a grammar Nazi. It was just who (or whom?) she was.

"She's married to me, of course, Wormtail" Sirius answered. Sora didn't think that the hall could go any quieter, but it did after Sirius said that. She turned around, just to make sure everybody was still breathing.

"You…married…Sora…now…" James sputtered, in shock. Lily, who was sitting beside him, just looked at Sora and Sirius as though they were aliens.

"Yes, me and Sirius were married, last night in matter of fact" Sora said, sounding amused.

"Can you do that?" Peter asked, eyes wide in shock and wonder.

"If you mean legally, then yes. Sora and I are both seventeen- which is the legal wizarding age" Sirius answered.

"No, I mean, can you guys just go out and get married like that?" he asked. Sora had to refrain from laughing.

"Yes my dear Peter, it is possible to just go out and get married. As opposed to the thinking of high society, marriage doesn't need big ceremonies or hundreds of guests" Sora answered.

"Yeah, but, this is so sudden. You two weren't even going out yet" Remus said.

"Well, I guess not technically speaking- but we both know that we were meant for each other" Sirius said. Sora nodded next to him.

"Meant for each other? But…but you guys never even liked each other in that way" James said.

"Of course they did- it was pretty obvious to anybody with an ounce of a brain" Peter said "Remus and I have known for quite some time"

James gave Peter one of his best scowls and turned back to Sora and Sirius.

"You guys really did it?" he asked

"Yes" Sora answered

"You're really married?"

"Yes"

"As in engaged in holy matrimony"

"Um…yes"

"As in life partners"

"James! Yes, Sirius and I are married, officially and unquestionably!" Sora finally cried.

"Congratulations!" Lily cried. It was the first thing she had said to them since she had heard the news about the marriage. Lily looked over at her two friends, beaming widely. "You two are such a perfect couple! So cute!" she gushed.

"I knew I could count on you to support us, Lils" Sora said, smiling. Slowly the rest of the H6 offered their congratulations, finally getting over the shock and letting the fact that Sora and Sirius were married sink in.

"Well it's not everyday that two of the members of the H6 get married" Remus said slowly. Peter grinned widely.

"So you know what that means" he said.

"Party in the Great Hall" James cried, raising his wand. Suddenly streamers and balloons filled the air and the walls were hung with banners. The house elves, who had been listening to the whole conversation, hurried to the kitchens and came out with trays and trays of more food, along with hundreds of bottles of butterbeer. Even the professors couldn't help but get into the party mood.

"Talk about a wedding reception" Sora said to Sirius, who grinned back at her.

* * *

The party in the Great Hall lasted quite a while and by the time it was winding down, classes had been completely forgotten and the students (and professors) waddled back to their rooms, full of food and butterbeer and quite tired from all the dancing and partying.

"Man that was amazing!" James cried as the H6 started back to the common room. James had gotten into a contest with Frank Longbottom over who could drink the most butterbeer in the span of five minutes. James had won, and now he was quite tipsy and wobbly. Lily had her arm around his waist, trying to keep him from falling.

"Is it possible to get drunk off of butterbeer?" she asked.

"Well, probably, if you drank twenty bottles of it in five minutes like James did" Sora said, looking at her drunken friend, smiling.

"That was some party, though" Remus said, smiling, picking streamers and confetti out of his hair.

"Seriously" Sirius said, grinning "the best one we've had this year"

"The best one we had ever" Peter said.

"Nah, that one in fifth year we had in the common room after we won the quidditch cup could give it a run for it's money" Remus said.

"If I remember correctly, James got piss drunk at that one too" Sora said.

"Yes, wasn't that the party where he composed that love song to you, Lily, and sang it on the top of his lungs in front of everybody in the common room?" Sirius asked.

"Don't remind me of that" Lily said, turning red. James, on the other hand, just chuckled and said something about chickens.

"We need to get him to bed" Lily said, shaking her head. The rest of the group agreed and started to head over to Lily and James's dorm.

There was one person in the school, though, who did not take part of the festivities. One person who was furious over Sora and Sirius's marriage. Adrian Potter. And what made him angry wasn't just the people coming up to him all day and saying "tough luck" (which actually was pretty annoying) or his new status as 'the boy whose girlfriend went and got married to somebody else'. No, he could have lived with that. The thing that made him upset was that he failed to do what his aunt had told him to do. And he knew she would be angry about it. But he also knew that it was his responsibility to tell her about Sora and Sirius's marriage- since James obviously wouldn't.

So, once again Adrian made his way to the owlery, only to find Sora there (she was writing to her mum and dad- telling them about the marriage). Adrian and Sora looked at each other for a while before Sora began to talk to him, feeling very awkward.

"Oh, hi Adrian. You came to send a letter?" she asked, trying to be polite.

"Isn't that strikingly obvious?" he asked dryly, calling his owl and tying his letter on her leg.

"Look, Adrian, I'm sorry for marrying Sirius when I was dating you. I…I just don't think we were right for each other" Sora said. Adrian just gave her one of his usual, smug looks.

"You made your thoughts exceedingly clear already, Sora. I am not upset because you got married to Sirius" Adrian said.

"Than what are you upset about?" Sora asked.

"I'm upset because I failed" he said simply before turning around and walking gracefully out of the owlery. Sora just stared after him for a few moments before heading out herself, wondering what Adrian meant by his words.

* * *

In London, Marissa Potter was just about to go take a bath after a long day's work when Adrian's owl swooped through the bay window of her office. She recognized the tawny owl immediately and wondered what in the world her nephew could want with her at that moment. He had already sent her a letter two weeks ago about him arriving at Hogwarts, and Marissa had told him to keep her updated only once every month. Something wrong must have happened.

Marissa took the letter from the owl and read over it, her eyes narrowing as she digested the information. So the little Kaito girl had gone and gotten herself married. She had defied Marissa Potter- and if there was one person in the world that would not be defied- it was Marissa.

But Marissa also knew that she could not harm Sora in any way. Even though the Potters and the Kaitos would not be marrying into each other's family the Kaito Industries were still very important for Marissa's business.

So instead of hiring somebody to take care of the girl, Marissa went over to her fireplace and sprinkled some floo powder into it.

"Kaito Residence" she said clearly, stepping into the fire. Seconds later she found herself in the guard's house in front of the sprawling Kaito manor. The guard, who was standing in his post, recognized Marissa immediately and took her to Yuki's office- where he was sitting, pouring over a rather large book.

"Kaito-san, Mistress Potter has come to visit" the guard said. Yuki looked up immediately, knowing why the woman was there.

"Come in, Potter-san" Yuki said, motioning to the chair across his desk "please sit."

Marissa went over to the chair and sat down, making herself comfortable before addressing the man in front of her.

"I suppose that you have already heard of your daughter's rash actions" Marissa said coldly. Yuki nodded his head. The letter from Sora had just come in this morning. It was a huge shock, but both him and his wife were a bit relieved. They never really approved of Sora marrying James anyways. He was a nice boy, but the Potter family was a bit too jaded and money-minded for family oriented Yuki and his wife, Bonnie.

"I did indeed hear about it Potter-san. It is most unfortunate that our deal will have to be canceled" he said. Marissa shot him a very cold look.

"Is that all you have to say about this, Yuki? That it is unfortunate?" she asked.

"I do not know what exactly you want me to do about this situation" Yuki said to the lady.

"I want you to fix it, Yuki. That is what I want you to do. I want you to make it so that your daughter is not married anymore" she answered. Yuki looked at the woman, surprised.

"You want me to force my daughter to get a divorce?" he asked.

"I am asking you to do whatever is necessary to make sure your daughter is single again. If she doesn't agree to divorce there are other ways of getting rid of her husband. I know a few very professional hit men. They never get caught and are extremely good at what they do" Marissa said coolly.

"I am not going to murder Sirius Black. I like the child" Yuki said, his tone dead set. He had gotten to know Sirius over the years- him and the rest of Sora's friends were regular visitors at his home.

"Well I don't like him, Yuki. To think that I let him live with me for two years- and this is how he repays me, by marrying my daughter in law" Marissa said.

"Sora is not your daughter in law anymore Potter-san. She married the boy that she loved and she is happy. I believe it to be a very mature decision on my daughter's part and I support her on it." Yuki said. Marissa's eyes narrowed.

"So is that the way it is going to be?" Marissa asked.

"Yes it is, I am afraid. I hope that this does not hamper our professional relationship- I still respect your company and hope that business can continue" Yuki said.

"Oh, don't worry about business. It will continue, as it always has. This problem does not merit a loss of revenue. I have a million girls lined up to marry my son. James has quite a selection to choose from" Marissa said getting up.

"Sora mentioned to me that James is in a relationship right now and is very happy. It would not be good for your son if you ruin it" Yuki said.

"James is in a relationship with some pauper mudblood, a girl not fit of his status. I cannot break up your daughter and Sirius; but mark my words I will break up James and his girlfriend. He deserves better than her and she will be taken care of" Marissa said, nodding her head towards Yuki and sweeping out of the room.

Yuki looked at the woman's receding back and gave out a silent prayer for Lily- she would need all of the help that she could get.

**A/N: Isn't that Marissa Potter such a lovely woman? Not. So what will happen to our Lily? Will Marissa harm her or will James come to the rescue? All (well, most) will be revelied in the next couple of chapters! As always, review and give me your opinions and even suggestions for later chapters/plot ideas. I appreciate it. Thanks!**


	17. New Plans and Old Love

**A/N: Okay, so in this chapter Marissa gets started on her plan to get rid of Lily. Plus, Sirius gets sick and Lily has to nurse him back to health for a night. Will her old feelings for the boy resurface? Enjoy this chapter!**

**Chapter 17: New Plans and Old Love**

The beginning of December came in a flash- but once it was there it crawled by slower than anybody could imagine. Classes for the H6 got harder as the N.E.W.T.S loomed around the corner and extra-curricular activities started to bog the teens down. Lily and James were piled in Head boy/girl activities, which were piling up as students started to get "winter fever" and decide that the school rules didn't matter to them anymore.

Sora was under a lot of pressure from the Hogwarts Spirit Committee (a club Sora founded herself that organized all of Hogwarts various parties/formal get together/balls/and even exam schedules) to put on an amazing Christmas party that year. It was also the first year that the Headmaster gave permission to the Committee to put on a Valentine's Day ball- so the girl was getting ready in advance for that as well.

Remus was putting in extra hours in his role as peer tutor (he got extra credit for it- so usually didn't mind) as all the seventh years realized at the exact same time that they better start studying for the exams.

Sirius was waist deep in the large project that he needed to do for his advanced Herbology class (which was so difficult that only six students decided to take it- two of which dropped out after the first three weeks).

Even Peter was kept busy with the Pre-Auror club, which he was the president of. Professor McGonagall, who was the sponsor of the club, decided that the club was also an excellent way to help the students study for several of their N.E.W.T.S, and was now assigning various homework and projects for the club members to do.

And on top of all of that, Frank Longbottom was calling extra quidditch practices, so Sora, James, and Sirius were even more exhausted that the rest, always complaining about their various aches and pains.

"I don't know if I can stand another week like this one!" James cried one Friday as the H6 sat outside under their favorite tree, savoring the last few minutes of peace before they had to go to Transfiguration.

"Tell me about it. I just wanted to strangle Frank yesterday when he told us we were going to have five practices next week" Sirius moaned, tossing his textbook into her back. The thought of studying even an ounce more made him want to throw up, even though he knew that he would be up all night trying to finish a last minute paper for potions.

"Well, look on the bright side, only two more weeks left until winter break" Remus said, going over the notes that Lily had let him borrow.

"Ah- don't remind me of that! The day before we let out for break is the Christmas party- and the Committee is expecting me to top last years" Sora cried out. Last year's party had been fantastic, complete with singing wood nymphs and polar bears ambling around the great hall. This year, Sora was up to her neck in suggestions given to her by various students as to what she should to this time around.

"Plus- I have the night shift for head duties this whole weekend- and I'm going to be up all tonight working on my essay for DADA" Lily moaned, singing down, the large textbook in her lap sliding off.

Peter looked at the group in front of him. They all looked as sad and pathetic as he felt, and he knew every one of them had worked themselves down to the bone. It was hard being the role models for everybody else in the school- it set the pressure too high. Every member of the H6 felt as though they had to be perfect at everything.

"And out transfiguration class isn't going to help much either" James said lamely.

"Yeah- I know. All we're going to do is keep reviewing old material for the exam. It gets really tiring" Remus said.

"Especially because McGonagall in such a dictator and harks down on us making sure that we're studying every second" Sirius said.

"There's no point of us even going to that class" Sora whined.

"Then let's not" Peter said suddenly. Everybody looked up at him, their eyes wide in shock; as though such an idea wasn't even to be fathomed.

"What?" Lily asked.

"Why don't we just skip class- head over to Hogsmede, have a few butterbeers" Peter said, shrugging.

"We can't do that" Remus said.

"Why can't we- we used to do it all the time in third year. Plus, we need to blow off steam" Peter answered.

"Yeah- but in third year we didn't have N.E.W.T.S or we weren't role models for the whole school" Sora pointed out.

"I don't know why you lot are even worried about the exams" Peter said loosely "you're the cleverest people in the whole school. Besides- what type of role models are we going to be if we're walking down the hallways half dead all the time?"

The rest of the group just sat in silence for a few seconds, contemplating the idea.

"I guess it wouldn't harm us to take a little break" Sirius said slowly

"We damn well deserve it" James added in.

"Definitely. Plus, I am in the mood for a butterbeer" Remus said.

"And I'm really not in the mood for Transfiguration" Lily mussed.

"So I guess it's set then" Sora said, looking around the group.

"To Hogsmede it is!" cried Peter getting up and throwing all of his books in his bag.

"You are a horrible influence on us, Wormtail" Sirius said to Peter, grinning, and putting all of his books away as well.

* * *

Marissa Potter sat at her desk, her eyes scanning over the papers in front of her without even seeing the words on it. The whole situation with James and his mudblood girlfriend was bothering the woman too much, and she couldn't concentrate on her work.

Finally she just set the paper aside and turned towards the butler who always stood at guard beside her desk.

"Jacques, go and get Thomas for me" Marissa said to the butler, who nodded his head and immediately left the room. Moments later he returned wit another person.

The man who entered the room with Jacques was someone who would be described as intimidating. He was muscular in any way, but he was tall, towering at about 6'7, with long, shoulder length black hair that looked as though he hacked at it himself. His face was taught and his eyes were the fiercest shade of black and dead-looking. His mouth was set in a harsh line and he walked with the air of a highly dangerous person. All in all, Thomas Helquest was not a man to be crossed.

And because of that, he was Marissa's personal assistant. Thomas had helped the woman get out of much trouble in the past and he was an expert of getting rid of annoying little problems.

"You called Madam?" Thomas asked, his voice harsh and brusque.

"Oh yes, I have a little problem that I need you to take care of" Marissa said softly.

"Of course, milady" Thomas answered, eyebrows raising interest.

"There is this one girl, Lily Evans, who is causing a bit of trouble for me" Marissa said slowly.

"Would you like me to take care of her for you?" Thomas asked.

"Oh, no- killing isn't in order at this time. All I want you to do is gather as much information about her family as you can. See what her parents do for a living, where they live, if she has any siblings" Marissa answered.

Thomas nodded. That would be easy. "And the what would you like to do?" he asked.

"Then bide your time. Help them out in fact. Give her dad a promotion; let them buy a bigger house, nicer, finer things. Wait about a month." Marissa said, tapping her hands on her desk. She looked up at Thomas with a sickly, evil smile.

"And then" she continued "once they've reached the top and are happy- I want you to ruin them"

* * *

The outing to Hogsmede was a relief on all the members of the H6… for about two hours. But once the group reached Hogwarts again, all of their worries and troubles came back. Sora had to rush off to Hannah Talbot's (a 7th year Hufflepuff) room for an overnight meeting about the winter party. Peter hurried off to get ready for his usual Friday night date with his girlfriend, Jenny. Remus rushed away to get ready to teach his nightly tutoring session. James went to patrol the hallways on his last day of night duty before the weekend and Sirius went off to go work on his mountain of homework.

Lily, on the other hand, went straight back to her room- determined to get her DADA essay done since she wouldn't have any time during the weekend. She went to her bedroom, got her books, and took them down to her common room, sitting in a chair by the fire, her parchment in her lap, open books surrounding her.

Lily looked at all the work she had to do and sighed. Lately none of the H6 had time to do anything fun like they used to. In fact, the afternoon outing to Hogsmede was the only entertaining thing that the group had done all week. The last full moon wasn't even fun because all of the H6 was so busy they couldn't even go out and keep Remus company.

All the work was taking its toll on her and James's relationship as well. It had been rocky to begin with, Lily admitted to herself. She and James were complete opposites, and there wasn't any secret about that. He was playful, slightly arrogant, and always eager to go out and do things. Lily on the other hand, was studious, shy, and enjoyed just sitting in front of the fire and talking instead of going out somewhere. But her and James had made the relationship work somehow. Now they didn't even get to see each at all any more and Lily had to admit that unless they made more time for themselves that their relationship wouldn't last.

After spending three hours trying to find information for her essay in vain, Lily finally decided to go to the library and research what she needed. She packed up all of her things and left a note to James about where she was, just incase he came back to the room earlier than she did.

Slowly she walked out of the common room and down the hallway. The sun had just set and most people where making their way back to their rooms, chatting merrily with their friends.

Lily reached the library and threw her bag on the nearest table, rushing over to the DADA section and grabbing ever single book that seemed like it might have something to do with her topic. Carrying the dangerously wobbly stack of books back to her table, Lily opened all of them in front of her and started to research.

Three hours later, Lily was almost dead from boredom, but she had a completed essay in front of her. Happily, she put all the books back on the shelf and put away her essay, making sure she put it somewhere safe. If anything happened to that assignment she would have to murder somebody.  
Lily was just about to leave the library when she saw Sirius, sitting on one of the tables near the back, a huge mountain of books in front of him. Lily walked over to the boy.

"Hey Sirius" she said merrily. Sirius just waved at her, eyes still glued to the book in front of him. Lily reached the table and read the title of the book. It was something about Herbology.

"Still working on your project?" she asked. Sirius just moaned.

"I have so much to do and I haven't even really started on it yet! I just don't have the time any more. I shouldn't have gone to Hogsmede today" he said weakly.

"Sirius, we all needed a break today, Peter was right" Lily said.

"But I can't afford a break, I've got so many things to do" the boy said. Lily looked down at him and suddenly noticed something. Sirius was paler than usual, and his hands were trembling.

"Sirius, are you feeling well?" she asked.

"I'm feeling awful" he answered truthfully. Lily sat down next to him and placed her hand against his forehead. He was burning up.

"You've got an awful fever!" she cried. "Is anything hurting you?" she asked.

"Well, I've got the most awful headache known to mankind, my stomach hurts like crazy, and my throat feels odd" Sirius answered weakly. Lily immediately balked. She knew exactly what Sirius had; she herself had it last week.

"Sirius- you've got strep throat!" she cried.

"I've got what?" he asked

"Strep throat- it's a muggle disease" Lily explained.

"A muggle disease? How in the world did I catch that?" Sirius asked.

"Well- have you been snogging any muggles recently?" Lily asked, teasing.

"Snogging any…no way, are you out of your mind!" Sirius asked, failing to see that Lily was joking; his mind was a bit hazy.

"You need to go get some rest, and some antibiotics. If you don't treat strep it could become scarlet fever" Lily said sternly.

Somewhere in the back of Sirius's clouded mind the term scarlet fever came up. He had taken muggle studies for only one year- but they had a unit on diseases. If he remembered correctly, scarlet fever was quite dangerous.

"I can't get scarlet fever!" Sirius moaned. Lily grinned.

"Don't worry- I won't let you get it" she said "I just had strep last week, and I have some medicine left. Come, I'll give you some"

"But…what about my project?" Sirius asked, groggily.

"Sirius Black- you are half dead and you ask about your project! You are resting- no more working tonight" Lily said, thinking that maybe she should become a nurse. God knows she was stern enough.

Lily helped Sirius put away all of his material and then helped him get to her room. The boy was becoming worse every minute and by the time that they reached the heads' dorms, he could barely walk without assistance. Lily placed Sirius on the couch and ran up to her bedroom to get her medicine. She gave Sirius the medicine and a glass of hot tea to drink it down with.

"Hot liquids should help soothe your throat" she said as Sirius drank the tea down.

"Thanks" he mumbled, eyes starting to droop. Lily felt his forehead once again. It was still burning.

"You worked yourself too hard" Lily said to the boy. Sirius just nodded slightly, head tilting to one side.

"I'm hot" he said weakly. Lily slapped herself on the forehead. Of course the boy would be hot; he was wearing his stuffy school robes for heaven's sake.

"You just take off your robe, I'll get you one of James's night robes for you" she said, running up to James's room and picking a night robe from his wardrobe. She walked back down the stairs and stopped, suddenly out of breath.

"Sirius was sitting on the couch. He had taken off his school robes, exposing the black shirt and black pants he had on underneath. He reached up and took his shirt off and Lily almost lost her breath. Sirius without his shirt on was a rather pleasant sight to say the least. Obviously the intense quidditch practices had been paying off…big time. Lily shook her head, trying to talk some sense into herself.

"Snap out of it, Lily you dolt! He's your best mate's husband" she said quietly to herself before walking up to him and handing him James's robe.

"This should be much cooler" she said. Sirius took the robe thankfully and slipped it on.

"Tired?" Lily asked the boy refilling his tea sup and giving it back to him. She sat down on the couch beside him.

"Tired" Sirius said, sleepily. His eyes were darkened greatly by the fever and when he looked over at Lily, her heart skipped a beat. She knew it was completely, horribly wrong, but Lily couldn't help but notice how beautiful his eyes looked at that moment.

"You…you should sleep then" Lily said quietly to the boy. Yes, him sleeping would be good, because then he'd close those gorgeous eyes of his and she wouldn't feel so guilty anymore.

"Yes" he said groggily "Thank you Lily, for everything" he said, smiling sweetly at her.

Lily's breath caught in her thought at that smile but she managed to spurt out some form of "your welcome" to him.

Sirius's eyes closed and he dropped to the side, falling over, his head landing on Lily's thigh. He was fast asleep, the fever and fatigue finally catching up to him.

Lily tried not to look at the boy, but she couldn't help it. He looked so peaceful, so cute when he slept. His hair was slightly damp from his perspiration and it was starting to curl like it always did when it got wet. Lily thought the boy looked absolutely adorable when his hair went all curly like it was. Looking down at him, Lily thought to herself that Sirius was a hundred times better looking than Adrian was. Plus Sirius was sweet and kind, not a huge git.

Suddenly Lily actually comprehended what she was thinking about and groaned. She couldn't think about Sirius in this way- he was Sora's husband. He loved Sora and saw Lily as only a friend- and that was the way it would always be. Lily had obsessed over the boy from third through sixth year and had made a pact with herself at the beginning of this year that she would finally give him up. But that was hard to do with him lying in her lap, looking so vulnerable and endearing.

Lily knew that she had to get away from Sirius, and fast. She quickly got up, gently setting Sirius's head on the sofa. The boy shuffled a bit.

"Are you leaving me?" he mumbled. Lily bent down

"Just for a moment" she lied.

"Don't leave…so hot…" he mumbled again. Lily was quite tempted to stay, but she knew that she couldn't. She loved Sora and she would not let herself fall in love with her husband. Lily placed her hand on Sirius's forehead once again.

"You're feeling cooler already, you'll be better soon" she whispered.

"Where…Sora?..." Sirius muttered. Lily smiled to herself ruefully. He was lying, feverish, delirious, and all he could ask about was Sora.

"She's at Hannah's. She'll be back by morning and she'll see you then" Lily said. Sirius closed his eyes and fell asleep once more, satisfied with Lily's answer.

Lily just looked down at the dozing boy once more and the rushed up to her room. She sat on her bed, confused and worried. Her thigh still felt hot from where Sirius's head had been lying on it and at that moment she wanted to do nothing more than go back down and stay with the boy.

"This shouldn't happen, I love James" she said to herself. And it was true. She did love James. She loved his energy; his zest for life, the way cared for her so deeply…she loved everything about him, faults and all.

But then there was Sirius- the boy she had loved for three years. He was handsome, sweet, and slightly mysterious- an endearing combination. But he was married to Lily's best friend and he had never let on in any way that he had feelings for the girl. Lily knew that having a crush on Sirius would lead to nowhere but pain for her, but he had looked so innocent and cute tonight that her old feelings couldn't help but surface.

Lily groaned and laid back on her bed, closing her eyes in frustration.

Was it possible to be in love with two people?

**A/N: So there you have it, the new chapter. What do you think about it? The next chapter will cover winter break and Christmas. I've been in a Christmas mood for this whole month for some reason, so this next chapter should be quite fun to write!**


	18. Clayton and Christmas

**A/N: Okay so here it is- Chapter 18! In this chapter- the H6 goes over to Sirius's place for Christmas- so of course you know that it's not going to be normal in any least sense. So this enjoy this dsyfunctional H6 Christmas! **

**Chapter Eighteen: Clayton and Christmas**

Lily woke up the next morning, groggy and still in her school robes. She sat up for a few seconds- mind hazy, wondering why in the world she hadn't changed before going to sleep the night before. She then remembered all the events that had happened last night and immediately got up, brushed through her curly, wild hair a few times, and rushed downstairs.

James was already in the common room when Lily got down. Sirius was still on the couch, in a deep sleep. Lily went up to the boy and felt his forehead. It was still hot, but not as burning as it was before.

"He was sick I guess" James said, yawning. He had just arrived two hours ago from his night duty and had been waiting for Lily to get up before he went off to sleep.

"He has strep throat" Lily answered.

"You mean that thing you had last week?" James asked, eyes starting to close…he needed to sleep.

"Yeah. Why are you still up?" Lily asked the boy as she fixed the blanket around Sirius and straightened up the pile of books that were on the table near her.

"I wanted to stay up until you woke up. Just to say good morning to you before I went up to sleep" James answered. Lily smiled brightly at him.

"How sweet of you" she said, kissing him on the top of his head. That was why she loved James so much, he might be immature, but he was always so thoughtful of her.

"I know that we haven't been able to spend a lot of time together, so I thought we could go out to Hogsmede tonight, just the two of us" James said.

"I would love to, James. But I have night duty tonight" Lily answered.

"I already asked Peter if he would cover for you tonight- he said he would" James said. Lily looked at the boy, and nodded her head.

"Hogsmede sounds lovely" Lily said, smiling at the boy, knowing that a date with James was exactly what she needed to clear up her mind and her confusion. It would do them both good to go out by themselves that night.

James was about to say something else to Lily when Sirius roused from his sleep, sitting up, his messy hair sticking up in all directions and a confused look on his face.

"Good morning sleeping beauty!" James said brightly to the boy. Sirius was too disoriented to feel offended by the comment.

"How are you feeling Sirius?" Lily asked.

"Like utter crap" Sirius answered, clutching his head with one hand. Lily smiled sympathetically at him. He looked like a little five year old kid.

"You'll be feeling like that for a few more days at the least. I'll give you the rest of my medicine to take with you" Lily said, getting the medicine from the table and looking around for something to put it in.

Suddenly the portrait hole opened and Sora crawled into the room.

"Hey Lily and James! Have you guys seen…oh, there you are, Sirius!" Sora said, walking up to the sofa where Sirius had been sleeping the night before.

"What…what happened to you?" she asked noting his dazed expression, darkened eyes, and unusual paleness.

"I've got scarlet fever" Sirius moaned.

"Scarlet fever?" Sora asked, eyes widening.

"Oh stop being so dramatic, Sirius. You've only got strep throat" Lily said, smacking the boy lightly on the head. Sirius frowned up at her.

"Here I am lying on my death bed and you go around hitting me. I should just make an announcement to the whole school that Lily Evans beats up dying people" Sirius sad, scowling.

"I'm glad to see that your illness has done nothing to decrease your _wonderful _personality" Lily said sarcastically, though she was grinning.

"He'll need to stay in bed this whole weekend" Lily said to Sora, handing the girl the bag with the medicine in it.

"He always stays in bed the whole weekend. I have never seen such a lazy kid in my life!" Sora said, looking down at the boy on the couch.

"Take pity on the poor boy- he's sick" James said, trying to sound like a concerned mother and failing miserably.

"Yeah, take pity on me" Sirius said pouting, looking incredibly like a little child who was about to throw a temper tantrum. Sora half expected him to fall on the ground and start kicking his legs any second now.

"Come, on, Mister Deathbed. We better get you back to our room" Sora said, walking over to Sirius.

"Do you need help walking?" she asked. Sirius just frowned.

"This whole conversation has ruined my pride pretty horrible already. The last thing I need if for the whole school to see me being helped to walk" he answered. Sora just shook her head. Boys and their pride.

"Oh, and he can't play quidditch this coming week either" Lily said. Sirius stopped in his tracks.

"What.do.you.mean?" he asked, his voice suddenly choked.

"I said that you can't play quidditch next week- you won't be physically up for it" Lily said.

"But the big game is next week!" James cried

"What big game?" Lily asked.

"Only the huge winter death match, throw down between Slytherin and Gryffindor!" Sirius moaned. Lily rolled her eyes.

"I'm almost positive that anything with the words 'death match' and 'throw down' won't be good for you to participate in when you're this sick" Lily said evenly.

"But I have to play- we'll be down a beater- Sora will be all alone!" Sirius said miserably.

"There has to be a replacement player for you" Lily said.

"Yeah, but the replacement player is Clayton Jordan!" Sirius said, as though it was the most horrible thing in the world. Sora and James gasped, as though it was the first time that thought had come to them- which it was.

"Then Clayton Jordan will play in your place" Lily said, not getting what the big deal was.

"Lily, have you ever _seen_ Clayton Jordan?" Sora asked, voice strained. Lily sighed.

"Okay, so the boy is a little uncoordinated…" she said.

"A little! Don't you remember last week when he tipped over his cauldron in potions and burned Frank's feet so badly he had to spend a week in the infirmary. Or the week before that when he transfigured Rheton Lee into a tree by accident. Or the week before that when he…"

"Okay I get it!" Lily cried "but we have no other choice! Sirius cannot play in the condition that he is in"

"I'm feeling better already. I'm at the top of my game" Sirius said, trying to hold himself straighter and not look so shaky.

"Yeah- he's right, he looks so much better!" James agreed, smiling.

"Absolutely smashing" Sora said brightly, causing Lily to open her mouth wide in shock.

"Sora Kaito Black! Your husband is near fainting from exhaustion and is suffering from a horrible case of strep throat and you are willing to sacrifice his health for a quidditch game!" she cried.

"It's not any quidditch game, it's THE quidditch game" James said, trying to talk some sense into Lily.

"And you too James Potter! How could you let your best friend go out on the field in the condition that he is. Both of you should be ashamed of yourselves!" she said rather loudly.

"But Lily…" Sirius started to say before the girl cut him off.

"There will be no more talk on this subject! Sirius cannot play quidditch- he will collapse and get much worse- possibly even catch scarlet fever. Clayton Jordan will play in Sirius's place- that's final. Now, Sora, you march Sirius to your room and make sure he rests up" Lily said sternly, pushing the two teens out of the room.

"But Lily, have you really _seen_ Clayton Jordan?" Sora cried, in a last ditch attempt to change her friends mind.

"OUT!" Lily cried, as the two scrambled out the portrait hole. Lily took a few deep breaths, calming herself and then looked back at James, who looked stunned.

"Surprised at my outburst?" Lily asked. James shook his head. He knew that Lily had those moments when she turned into a complete hellion. It was one of the things that he liked about her, her fire.

"Then what is it?" Lily asked. James just stared at her.

"Have you _seen_ Clayton Jordan?" he asked weakly. Lily just groaned and walked back up to her bedroom, shaking her head.

"You quidditch players! All of you are insane!" she cried before going into her room and slamming the door behind her.

In the end, Sirius ended up taking Lily's advice (only because of the fact that Lily told him that if he played in the game she would rip out every one of his hairs. Sirius had no doubt she would do it. Lily was one of the sweetest girls- but when she got mad- nobody wanted to mess with her).

* * *

So Clayton Jordan played in place of Sirius, which meant that he was flying above a large crowd, sixty feet up in the air, with a heavy bat in his hand. Not a good combination. Sora had to spend more of her time beating Clayton away so that he wouldn't crash into people than she did beating away bludgers. If Clayton was uncoordinated on the ground, he was a hundred times more so in the air. So finally, after the boy had run head on into the keeper for the sixth time, Sora took out her wand and muttered a spell that made Clayton completely incapable of moving.

"Sorry mate, but we have way too much at stake here" Sora said to the boy before sweeping away.

Gryffindor barley won the game, thanks to a spectacular last minute catch by James, Sora hitting the bludger so hard at Bellatrix Black that it knocked her clear off her broom, and an amazing play that Frank did five seconds before the game ended.

Sirius watched from the sidelines, miserable, wishing more than anything that he could be up there with the rest of the team. From beside him, Remus grinned.

"You look like somebody died, Sirius" he said. Peter turned over.

"Not died- caught scarlet fever" he said, correcting Remus, a huge smile on his face.

"Shut up both of you!" Sirius mumbled.

* * *

After the game everybody rushed back to their rooms to get ready for the Christmas ball that was that night. Sora and her fellow Committee members had been working tirelessly for the past week on getting the great hall ready for the ball- and now it looked absolutely amazing. There were icicles hanging from the ceilings, snow was falling down gently around everybody, and there was a huge, mouthwatering spread of food everywhere.

Sora stuck around at the party long enough to greet everybody and see for herself how wonderfully the ball had turned out. James and Lily were off in the corner, giggling about something, looking very happy indeed. Peter and his girlfriend, Jenny were waltzing around the dance floor, large smiles on both of their faces. Remus and his date, a fellow Gryffindor named Suzy, were by the punchbowl- engaged in some sort of conversation, both of them smiling and looking very pleased. Even Clayton Jordan looked like he was having a good time- trying to dance his way across the room. Sora smiled at her friends, glad they were all looking so happy that night.

She, on the other hand, felt quite lonely. All of her friends were there, but Sirius wasn't. He was still in their room, sick and sullen- with a high fever and a throbbing throat. And suddenly, Sora didn't really feel like staying at the party anymore. She bade farewell to all of her friends (which took quite a while) and then stole away from the Great Hall, making her way back to her room.

After Dumbledore had learnt about Sora and Sirius's marriage- he gave the couple a separate room just a minute away from the Gryffindor common room. It was about the sane size as Lily and James's room and Sora found it to be quite comfortable and tastefully decorated.

She reached her room, gave her password, and crawled in. There was a small common room, with a sofa, two chairs, a large fireplace, and a generously sized bookshelf that was packed with volumes. On the right side of the common room was a staircase that led to Sora and Sirius's room. Sora walked up the staircase and opened the door to the room.

Sirius was in bed, a large book in his lap, looking rather depressed. He looked pale and drawn and even thinner than usual (the sickness was ruining his appetite and he hadn't eaten properly in days) - but for some reason, all of this just made him look even better. Sirius looked up as Sora came in and smiled.

"What are you doing here?" he asked "aren't you supposed to be at the party?"

"I decided to leave" Sora said, walking over to the bed, kicking off her shoes and sitting down on her side.

"Was it too boring for you?" Sirius asked, closing his book.

"Too interesting. It put me off balance" she said, grinning wickedly. That had been the exact line that Sirius had used on her back in third year after the eventful Halloween party. Ah- third year…it seemed like forever ago- it was forever ago. Back when she hated Sirius's guts and the marauders were the enemies. Good times.

"It's sort of creepy how you remember that" Sirius said to the girl.

"Well you still remember it" Sora retorted.

"Yeah- that's because I said it" Sirius answered her back, raising his eyebrows. Sora sighed.

"It's impossible to win against you" she said, leaning back against the headboard.

"I know" Sirius answered, grinning broadly.

"We need to work on that cocky attitude of yours" Sora said to the boy next to her.

"What's wrong with it?" Sirius asked.

"Oh, you mean despite the fact that it makes you look like an arrogant dolt?" Sora said.

"Watch it, Kaito" Sirius warned. Sora turned to him and smiled.

"My last name is actually Black now" she said, as though she was informing him of this for the first time. Sirius smiled back at her

"Ah, yes it is, isn't it" he said wistfully.

"Wouldn't have it any other way" Sora answered.

"Neither would I" Sirius said

The next day everybody was in a hurry, trying to pack their things before the train left from Hogwarts. It was officially the first day of winter break. Sora packed all of her things, grinning. This break she would be going with Sirius to his flat- which was, at this time, her new home. Sora had never been there before, so she was quite excited to see what it looked liked. She was also excited because her neighbor would be Andromeda Tonks- Sirius's bubbling, energetic cousin who had been moral support for the H6 ever since they got together. The H6 had been with her through all the major events of her life. They went to her wedding and they also went to the hospital to visit her after she gave birth to her daughter- Nymphadora- who was three now. Sora loved the woman, her husband, and their cute little girl. They were such a fun family to be around.

That year, the rest of the H6 would also be spending their winter in Sirius's flat. James had come up to Sirius a week ago and asked if he could spend the break with him- seeing on how his mum seemed to be going on a warpath and James would like to stay out of her way. Sirius and Sora agreed at once and also invited Lily, Remus, and Peter over (they had been planning on staying in Hogwarts over break). All of them happily agreed- and Peter was even bringing along Jenny. The flat was a rather large one, so it had room to it everybody. Plus, Sora and Sirius quite liked the idea of having all of their friends over for Christmas.

"Sora, come on- we're going to be late for the train!" Sirius cried. Sora threw everything into her bag and rushed down the steps, meeting up with the boy.

"Got everything?" he asked.

"Hopefully" Sora answered, opening the portrait hole and scampering out.

The two rushed over to the train, where they found the rest of the H6, who had saved a compartment.

"This is going to be an amazing Christmas" Lily gushes as all of them finally took their seats and the train started to move.

"I know- the first one that we've had all together" Peter said.

"Will Sirius's flat be able to fit us all in?" Jenny asked. Sora looked at her and grinned.

"Well, no. Some people will have to sleep in the bathtub. I've heard it's pretty cozy though" she said. Jenny laughed and threw the book she was holding in her hands at her.

"You're so cruel!" the girl said, smiling. Jenny had become very close friends with the H6 ever since she started going out with Peter two years ago. Sora rubbed her arm where Jenny's book had hit her.

"Very strong arm" Sora commented "you've picked a real jem, Peter" she said, grinning at the boy.

The group continued on in their playful banter until they reached the platform. Quickly, all of the H6 (and Jenny) got their bags and pushed their way outside. They crossed to the barrier and made their way outside of the station. Sirius hailed down a magical cab (you could tell the magical ones because they were always painted in neon colors) and gave him the address to his flat. The cab ride was short, and the teens were dropped off in front of a very nice, ultra modern looking flat complex. The doorman nodded at Sirius and let the group in.

They took the lift up to the thirteenth floor, and then proceeded to room three. Sirius waved his wand at the door and it opened, reveling a beautiful space. Sirius's flat was gorgeous, and huge. Of course it was a magical flat- so it was basically the size of a very large muggle house- with nine bedrooms, ten bathrooms, two living spaces, a large kitchen, a fancy dining room, and a very nice balcony.

"Sirius, this place is lovely!" Sora said, smiling. Of course, the size of the flat was nothing compared to the Kaito manner- but Sora found this place to feel much more like a home that her house in Japan did.

"Glad you approve of it, love" Sirius said.

"But it needs to be decorated for Christmas" Remus said, looking around.

"Yeah- it needs some garlands and holly" Peter said.

"And mistletoe!" James added in.

"So immature!" Lily said, though she was grinning.

"Okay, we'll decorate later. Right now- everybody needs to unpack. There are enough rooms so that each one of you can have you own." Sirius said. James looked a little disappointed.

"Yes, James, this does mean that your romantic rendezvous with Lily will have to wait" Sora said to the boy, causing both him and Lily to blush to the roots.

Everybody went to their prospective rooms and unpacked their things- and it took a good two hours for them to finish. The rest of the night they played exploding snap, talked, joked around, and just had a good time. It was nice being together, away from school and stress.

* * *

For the next few days everybody helped decorate the flat. They went out to Diagon Ally and bout all of the Christmas items they had, from wreaths, to little crystal snowmen, to singing mistletoe and then hung everything up with the help of Andromeda, who came over to help. Soon, the whole flat was perfectly decorated for Christmas- it was quite the cheery sight.

On Christmas Eve, everybody crammed into the kitchen, each person preparing something for Christmas dinner the next day.

Sora, Lily, and Jenny were all at the stove, mixing a huge pot of stew when Lily suddenly looked up.

"Does something smell odd?" she asked. Sora and Jenny sniffed the air. Sora nodded her head.

"It actually kind of smells like…"

"FIRE!!!" James cried, causing all three girls to turn around quickly, only to see James holding a rather burnt turkey. Apparently he had somehow managed to set the thing on fire and there were now a few, weak flames, dancing along its surface.

James, though, seemed to think that it was going to burn the whole place down. He quickly opened the kitchen window and tossed the turkey out of it.

"James- you moron- what did you do?" Remus cried, rushing to the window. The turkey had kit an old man who was walking by with his wife. The man was now looking at the turkey as though it was some type of fantastic thing.

"You nearly killed that man!" Lily whispered to James, furiously.

"I couldn't let it set the flat on fire" James said defensively.

"It wouldn't have set the flat on fire- it was barley burning" Jenny said to the boy.

"Look- Ethel- This fell on my head!" the old man said to his wife, excitedly. All seven teens looked out the window, trying not to be seen.

"Where did it come from?" Ethel asked.

"It came out of the sky!" the old man answered.

"Out of the sky? Are you sure?" she asked.

"Of course I'm sure!"

"Well why would a turkey come out of the sky?" Ethel asked.

"Maybe God sent it down for us" the old man said, his voice shaking in awe (or maybe it was just shaking because he was so old)

James snickered and Lily elbowed him in the ribs.

"Why would God send us a burned turkey?" Ethel asked.

"Don't talk about the turkey in that way- it's a holy turkey" the old man said. This time even Lily couldn't help but giggle a bit.

"A Holy Turkey!" Ethel cried.

"Yes- we should take it home and put it on our table during Christmas dinner" the old man said.

"Well what if someone tries to eat it?" Ethel asked.

"Who would eat this turkey? It is obvious to see how holy it is" the old man said- pointing at the turkey, which looked more like a large black lump than anything else.

"What about your cousin, Marvin- he's nearly blind" Ethel said.

"Well, we'll just have to keep Marvin away from the turkey" the man said.

"And what about your great-nephew- Clayton Jordan. He's a daft boy- he'll probably eat it" Ethel said.

Sora gasped and turned to the rest of the group. _Clayton Jordan?_

"Well we'll keep him away from it too. Now help me carry this back home!" the old man said. Ethel helped her husband carry the turkey and as soon as they were far enough away where the teens couldn't see them anymore, they all started breaking out into laughter.

"Well good going James" Peter said through his laughter.

"Yes- you brought a miracle to Clayton Jordan's family" Sora said, wiping the tears from her face.

"Holy Turkey!" Jenny cried, laughing all over again. It took the group a good fifteen minutes to stop laughing and get up from the floor.

"I guess we should call Andromeda and ask her to bring a turkey" Sirius said. Everybody nodded, the word turkey, causing them to laugh all over again.

The rest of Christmas Eve went by pretty uneventfully-and everybody went to bed early- eager for the next day.

Sirius was the first one to wake up on Christmas morning. It was just starting to get light outside and the whole house was calm for the first time. He looked beside him and Sora, who was sleeping peacefully next to him. Sirius smiled at the girl- amazed at how calm and beautiful she looked when she was sleeping, bathed in the early morning light.

Slowly Sirius shook the girl awake. Sora opened her eyes and looked around her.

"Merry Christmas, love" Sirius whispered to her. Sora smiled lazily.

"Our first Christmas together" she said. Sirius nodded his head.

"It's going to be wonderful" he whispered to her.

"GOD DAMN BLOODY TABLE! WHO PUT THAT THERE ANYWAYS?" James cried from outside their door, moaning in pain. Apparently he had just run into a table on his way to the bathroom and had stubbed his toe.

"It's going to be absolutely wonderful" Sora said, smiling widely.

James's cries of pain woke everybody in the flat up and soon, they were all congregated around the large Christmas tree in the main room, still dressed in their nightgowns. There were piles of presents under the tree, so many in fact, that they spilled out onto the fireplace and even on some chairs.

"Good haul this year" Remus stated.

"Definitely" Peter answered.

"Should we open them up now?" James asked, his stubbed toe forgotten.

"We're waiting on two more guests" Sirius said just as there was a knock on the door. Sora went over and opened it.

Suddenly a flash of blue and gold streaked into the flat. Sirius caught the squirming, giggling creature as it ran towards him.

"Nymphie!" he cried, looking at the small three year old girl in his arms. Nymphadora, Andromeda's daughter, was a beautiful little girl, with huge, glowing blue eyes and a wide, bright smile.

Andromeda stood in the doorway, laughing, a huge turkey in her arms. Sora quickly took the turkey from the woman, put it in the kitchen, and returned to the main room. She walked over to Sirius and Nymph.

"Ah- Nymph, you decided to go blond today" Sora said, fingering the girl's golden tresses "it looks good on you"

"I don't know- I kind of liked the hot pink better. It grew on me" Remus said. Nymph closed her big blue eyes and scrunched her little forehead in concentration. Seconds later her hair was a bubblegum pink.

"Betta' Remus?" the little girl asked. Sirius grinned widely.

"Looks like someone has a little crush on you, Moony" he said, sitting down next to the boy on the couch.

"I'm definitely not worthy" Remus said, smiling. Andromeda shook her head and took a seat in a chair by the tree. Sora went over and sat next to Sirius.

"Where's Ted?" Sora asked.

"He's working- on Christmas at that!" Andromeda said, shaking her head "his job gives him no time off".

Sora nodded her head. She wished that Ted Tonks could have come- he was always so lively and fun to have around.

"Look at all of you guys- already so grown up- you'll be graduating this year" Andromeda said. All the teens nodded. Andromeda turned her large, green eyes to Remus.

"So, Remus, when are you going to bring a girl over to show me?" the lady asked, smiling. Remus grinned at her.

"What are you talking about, Andromeda- I'm already promised to Nymph. I would never cheat on her!" Remus joked.

"Well, at least I know my daughter is in good hands" Andromeda retorted. Nymph looked at her mum in confusion.

"Don't you worry, Nymphie, Remus is just a slightly creepy kid. We'll find you someone much better" Sirius said to the little girl, scooping her up and putting her on his lap.

"I should feel offended, you know" Remus said, pouting a bit.

"Ah, lighten up Moony, it's Christmas!" James said, throwing a present at him.

Soon there was wrapping paper flying everywhere as gifts were opened.

"Ah, a broom service kit- thanks Jenny!"

"Oh- I've wanted this book for quite a long while"

"A box of chocolate cauldrons- sweet!"

"Wow- some random sixth year got me a set of crystal scales. These must have cost a fortune!"

"Oh wow Lily, thanks for the…thing…"

"It's a daily planner, Sirius!"

"I knew that!"

After a while, the room was full of wrapping paper and everybody had a small mountain of presents next to them. Lily, however was not looking at her presents, but at a letter in her hands.

"Who's that from, Lils?" Sora asked. Lily looked up at her, beaming.

"It's a letter from my parents. My dad got promoted to head chef at his restaurant and my mum's sewing business has suddenly picked up a lot. They are sending my sister to the private prep school that she's always wanted to go to- and everybody is really happy!" Lily cried, smiling widely.

"Well, that's a cause for a celebration!" Peter said happily.

"Should we go get the food out?" Remus asked. Everybody nodded and started to walk to the kitchen. The put all the food down at the table and sat down.

"Well, before we eat does anybody have anything to say?" Sirius asked.

"I do" Peter said. Sirius nodded at him.

"I wonder if Clayton Jordan has eaten any of the Holy Turkey yet" Peter said, his face completely serious and dead set. Everybody collapsed into laughter (except for Andromeda and Nymph- who of course, hadn't been there for that whole incident).

And so the day passed, and everybody went to sleep that night with smiles on their faces and Christmas memories that would last for quite a long while.

**A/N: Ah yes, so the Christmas chapter is done. It was quite fun to write. So next chapter Marissa will fufill her plan of ruining Lily's family. How will the H6 react to all of this? Well knowing them- it's going to be something dramatic. See you next chapter!**


	19. Merlin and Marriage

**A/N: Okay, sorry it took me so long to get the nezt xhapter up to you guys- I've just been super busy. Another year gone by, another class of seniors that I will tearfully say bye to in a couple of months. It makes me quite depressed. Even more so when I think that next year, I'll be the one graduating and going far away next year. Ah well, at least I have my writing to keep me happy. Hopefully this chapter will be worth the wait. Enjoy!**

**Chapter nineteen: Merlin and Marriage**

The train ride back to Hogwarts was a depressing affair. Nobody had wanted to leave Sirius and Sora's comfortable flat; especially not with a whole new semester of strikingly hard classes and the impending arrival of the N.E.W.T.S to look forward to. The mood in the H6's compartment, as well as the rest of the bus, was dark- and it was easy to tell.

"Oh, there's no need to be so glum!" Jenny finally cried as Peter sighed sadly for the fourteenth time.

"Is there a reason not to be glum?" Remus asked, his head resting lazily against the cool window pane.

"Why…we get to see all of our friends when we get back. Plus- I heard teachers are more lax with the students the first few weeks after winter break" Jenny said, trying to sound optimistic.

"Yeah, well I have double potions with the Slytherins to look forward to first thing tomorrow" Peter moaned.

"Peter, we all have double potions with the Slytherins first thing tomorrow" Sora reminded him. Sirius groaned beside her.

"Great- just what we need. Start the new semester with Slughorn" he said, irritably.

"Well, just think about it- we only have one semester left and then we'll graduate and be free!" Jenny said, trying to find something positive to say.

"I won't be free- I've got to go to business school" James said.

"And I've got auror school" Peter added.

"I'm headed off to professor training" Remus stated.

"And Sora, Sirius and I all have internships with the ministry" Lily added in.

"We'll never be free!" Jenny cried, finally giving up. She slumped down into her seat, upset and surly- just like the rest of the group.

* * *

The H6 all walked slowly into the castle when they arrived- stepping over the threshold into the main entrance way- standing still for a moment, taking in the familiar sights of the school.

"I guess winter hols is officially over now" James said finally. The rest of the group nodded numbly and made their way down the hall to their common rooms.

Lily and James walked in silence to their room, both of them quite depressed and confused over completely different things.

James was saddened because of the impeding start of classes and the fact that he hadn't done any of his winter assignments yet. He was going to so get kicked out of his head boy duties. And he was confused because his mother hadn't mailed him one howler over the break- even though he strictly disobeyed her orders for him to come home that Christmas. His mother was usually a hellion when her orders weren't obeyed- so he knew that something had to be up- and it made him feel nervous.

Lily, on the other hand was depressed because this Christmas had been the most joyous one she ever had celebrated- and she knew deep down that there would never be another one like it. Next year, the H6 would be separated and they would all be so busy with their own things that nobody would have time to get together anymore- which made Lily want to cry. The H6 was her life, she loved every member of it and she couldn't imagine being parted from them. And she was confused, very confused in fact, because the feelings she had for Sirius were still there and she didn't know how to get rid of them. She loved James, loved him with all of her heart- but she still felt a bit numb whenever Sirius walked past her, and she didn't know why.

"You look spaced" James commented to her as they reached their common room.

"Just a bit confused" Lily answered truthfully. James nodded his head, not wanting to pry. He gave the password to the portrait and stepped into the common room, only to find somebody already sitting there.

* * *

A boy lounged on the sofa, looking lazily into the unlit fireplace. His hair was black and messy, falling to the nape of his neck. He was a tall, graceful person- though he looked a bit too thin, as though he was sickly. He had a pair of the most electric blue eyes set in a thin, handsome face. And when he looked up at James and Lily, his lips did not pull up into a smile.

"Regulus" James said stiffly, acknowledging the boy in front of him. Regulus was Sirius's little brother- but besides physical resemblance- there really wasn't much the two boys had in common. Nobody in the H6 cared for the boy much, except for Sora- who had become fast friends with Regulus after she saved him from being mauled by the giant squid in his first year.

"James" Regulus said, nodding his head towards him. "And of course, Lily" he added as the girl stepped into the common room.

James stepped a little closer to Lily, a clear sign of protection.

"Do you need something Regulus?" Lily asked, wondering how in the world the boy got in the room in the first place. But as soon as the question popped into her head- she answered it. Regulus was a regular fox. He was sly and cunning and knew all the passwords to every room in the school. It was slightly frightening…

"I have some information that I thought would be valuable to both of you" Regulus said plainly. James looked at the boy with narrowed eyes.

"What type of information?" he asked.

"Information concerning your dear mum and her little plan to get rid of Lily" Regulus said, his face breaking out into a grin.

James and Lily's faces paled. Regulus wasn't a very nice person, but he never lied when it came to doling out information.

"What…what plan?" James asked weakly. He knew that his mother had been acting oddly…

"My information doesn't come for free, James" Regulus said calmly. James's eyes flashed and when he spoke again, his voice was hard and chilling.

"You tell me what my mum's plan is right now or I swear I will rip your face off" he growled. Regulus, on the other hand, was not impressed.

"Honestly, James- you can come up with a better threat than that, can't you? Anyways- this information was hard to attain; it will cost you something quite special" Regulus answered. James gave out a sigh of frustration and grabbed the boy by the cuff of his robes, hoisting him off the sofa and dragging him out of the room, which wasn't that difficult seeing as how the boy was really quite thin.

"James- what are you doing?" Lily cried, running after him.

"Get your hands off of me, Potter!" Regulus cried, trying to fight James's death grip.

"If he isn't willing to cooperate, I'll take him to someone who will make him" James said coolly, dragging the boy out of the common room and into the hall.

* * *

Sora and Sirius were in the bedroom, in the middle of unpacking all of their things when the door to their common room burst open. Both of them rushed out of their room and down the stairs- wondering what had happened now. They were more than shocked to reach the bottom and see a pale, scared looking Lily standing next to an infuriated James who was hauling Regulus behind him.

"What…the…bloody…hell..?" Sirius asked slowly, taking in the odd sight.

"I need your help" James said to his two friends standing in front of him.

"James you let go of that boy right now!" Sora cried. James let go of Regulus right away. He might be stronger than the boy- but Sora had a mean roundhouse kick that she liked to use now and then.

"What's going on?" Sirius asked, looking at his brother, who was lying on a heap on the ground, clutching his side in pain.

"Regulus was in our room and he said that he had some news about James's mum and some plan that she had. Then he refused to tell us anything unless we paid him and James got angry and dragged him over here" Lily explained quickly.

"He demanded pay?" Sirius asked. Lily nodded.

"He said it would cost us something special" she added.

"Well that's rather easy to get!" Sora said.

"What? Does he want money? That's not really something special. I can give him that. How much, 200 galleons?" James said.

"I don't want your filthy money, James" Regulus said, getting up, still clutching his side.

"Then what?" Lily asked. Sora just shook her head and ran up the stairs to her room. She returned a few seconds later, a rather large box clutched in one hand.

"What is that?" James asked. Sirius craned his neck to look at what Sora was holding.

Sora, instead, threw the box in front of Regulus.

"Okay, now tell us whatever you know" she said, grinning widely. Regulus looked at the box in disdain, expecting it to be something ridiculous. But upon reading the words on it, he immediately snatched the box from the ground and looked up at Sora.

"You know my weak spot" he stated simply. Sora nodded her head.

"What is it?" Lily asked, confused- just as James and Sirius were.

"Chocolate frogs" Sora answered.

"Caramel filled ones" Regulus added in. James, Lily, and Sirius just stared at him.

"You weren't willing to take good money for your information- but you'll give it away for a box of caramel filled chocolate frogs?" James asked in confusion.

"Pretty much so" Regulus answered.

"Your brother is really odd, you know that don't you?" Lily said, turning towards Sirius. The boy just shrugged. Regulus had always been a bit odd- but then again, he was a "true" Black; what else was there to expect.

"Just tell us whatever you found out" Sora said, but James stopped her.

"No wait one minute; I want Moony and Wormtail to be here for this. We can't make any plans without them" he said. Lily, Sora, and Sirius all nodded their heads and Sirius rushed out of the room to go grab the other two members of the H6.

* * *

A few minutes later, all six teens were sitting on the floor in front of the fireplace, looking up at Regulus, who was seated on the sofa before them.

"Okay, so what is this all about?" Remus asked.

"Well, apparently James's mum has this plan to get rid of Lily so that James ca get married to some type of rich witch heiress" Regulus said.

"But how will she get rid of Lily; she's safe as long as she's in Hogwarts. Professor Dumbledore won't let anything happen to her" Peter said.

"That's why Marissa has decided to attack Lily indirectly. She plans on ruining her family" Regulus continued.

"My family!" Lily cried, shocked and disgusted. It was a low blow for Marissa Potter, to attack her family- who couldn't even use magic to defend themselves.

"But my dad just got a raise and my mum's business has just started to pick up" the girl added.

"Which was all part of the plan. Marissa was going to raise your family up to the top and then ruin them completely- as in take away their jobs and home." Regulus said.

"But…we can't let her do that! Where will my parents go?" Lily asked.

"Don't be daft, Lily- don't you think one of our families would take your parents and sister in?" Sora asked.

"We've got more than enough space in our place" Peter offered.

"Plus, my dad could get your folks a new job in no time" Sora added in.

Lily smiled at all of her friends, thankful that they were there for her. But still, she didn't want it to come to that point.

"I can't let my family go through all of this pain just because of me" Lily said softly.

"What do you mean?" Sirius asked.

"I mean it's not fair for my parents and sister to suffer just because I fell in love with the wrong person" Lily answered.

"You couldn't help it, Lils, it's not like it's your fault. Plus- what can you do about it?" Sora asked. Lily looked up at James. She loved him and she didn't want to let him go…but, on the other hand, she couldn't do this to her family.

"I…I don't know what to do" Lily said quietly, her eyes filling up with tears.

"We are not going to break up" James said to the girl firmly.

"What else can we do- James? What other option do we have?" Lily cried.

"We'll find a way, Lily. We always do" James answered, his tone hard. He wouldn't give up Lily, not this easily.

"Well, how do we know Regulus got his information from a reliable source anyway?" Remus asked. Suddenly everybody turned on Regulus.

"My source is infallible" Regulus answered.

"Who is it?" James asked. Regulus gave him a sick little grin.

"Your mum's right hand man- Thomas" he answered. James looked at him through narrowed eyes.

"Thomas is deadly loyal to my mother- he wouldn't give out her plans to anybody" James said. Regulus just laughed at this.

"Really, James, you are so innocent. All I had to do was dangle a sack of galleons in front of him and he sang like a bird" Regulus answered.

"Remind me to tell mother to give that man a raise" James said, shaking his head. It was a bit off-putting to know that his mum's most trusted advisor betrayed her so easily, but then again- if it wasn't for the man's loose lips, they wouldn't have known about Marissa's plan until it was too late.

"But what can we do to stop Marissa?" Peter asked Regulus. The boy just shrugged his slight shoulders.

"Don't ask me- I just give out information" he answered. Lily looked over at James, who was deep in thought.

"There is nothing we can do" she said, his voice low and defeated.

"Don't say that, Lily. There's always something we can do- look as Sora and me- we solved our problem rather easily" Sirius said, trying to be comforting.

"Don't I know" Lily mumbled to herself.

"But this is a rather tough problem. Marissa Potter isn't just your ordinary witch" Remus said. James nodded his head darkly.

"I know. Whatever my mum wants, she gets. Nobody has ever been able to stop one of her plans ever" he said. Sora looked up at him with indignation.

"Yeah- well nobody had ever stopped one of the marauders plans before until Lily and I came along- and now look at us. We're the H6! If anybody could stop your mum, it's us" she said to the boy.

"I guess you're right" James said, once again getting lost in his thoughts. He stayed in his thoughtful gaze for a few moments until his eyes brightened and a wide grin spread on his face.

"I've got an idea!" he cried. The rest of the group stared at him.

"You found a way to stop you mum's plan?" Peter asked. James shook his head.

"No, but I found a way for my mother to accept Lily" he answered. Lily scoffed.

"James- please, your mum would never accept me. You are the sole heir of the biggest, richest corporation in the whole wizarding world! I'm the oldest daughter of a poor muggle family; there is nothing in the world that could make me worthy of you in your mum's eyes" Lily said. James just shook his head.

"There is one thing that will force her to accept you" James said.

"What is it?" Regulus asked, curious. He wasn't a dull boy- he knew that it would take something huge to get Marissa Potter to accept Lily as her daughter-in-law.

"Merlin" James said, his grin growing wider. Everybody in the group except for Lily gasped, looking at James with wide eyes.

"Impossible! It will never work" Regulus said, sounding shocked.

"He does have a point- Prongs, the Merlin is a pretty big stretch, even for us" Remus said, agreeing with Regulus for the first time in his life. Lily just looked at everybody, a confused expression plastered on her face.

"What is Merlin?" Lily asked. Everybody just turned and looked at her as though she was crazy.

"You must be kidding me, Lily- you don't know about Merlin?" Sirius asked, stunned. Lily just shook her head.

"The Merlin Pageant- it's only the biggest event for teenage witches ever" Sora said. Lily looked at Sora, even more confused than ever.

"Pageant…as in beauty pageant?" she asked. Everybody nodded. Lily just stared at the group and then bursted out laughing. James looked quite hurt.

"What's the matter with my idea?" he asked. Lily looked over at him, her eyes brimming with tears of laughter.

"James- how in the world do you think that a beauty pageant will stop you mum? Out of all the ideas you have ever had- this is the most pathetic one" she said.

"Lily, you don't understand- the Merlin Pageant is the biggest event for girls searching for rich husbands" Peter said.

"I'm not searching for a rich husband" Lily said.

"Um, hello- didn't we already establish that I am the richest wizard in the whole magical world?" James said. Lily blushed a ferocious shade of red.

"We never said anything about marriage" she mumbled. James just shook his head.

'We don't need to discuss that. We're going to get married- why wouldn't we? What we need to worry about now is getting my mum to accept the marriage" James said. Lily just looked over at the boy. He was so confident, did he not even think about asking her for her opinion about the whole marriage thing?

"You haven't even proposed to me yet" Lily said to the boy.

"Fine- I'll get around to it soon. But right now we need to get you to win the Merlin" James said.

"Prongs- I'm not trying to be negative- but it's almost impossible for Lily to win the Merlin" Sirius said. Lily looked over at him angrily.

"What, do you think I'm too ugly?" she asked, the blush creeping back onto her face.

"Nah, your gorgeous, Lily" Sirius assured her (Lily tried not to swoon at the boy's words) "But all of the girls who participate in the pageant have been preparing for it their whole lives!" he added.

"But why? Why is the Merlin so important?" Lily asked.

"Because, Lils, the girl who wins the Merlin is named the best catch in the whole wizarding world. High society girls from all countries come and compete in the pageant. Whoever wins can basically has clout to do anything" Sora said.

"So if you win the pageant and become the best catch in the whole world- my mum will have to accept you" James said excitedly "My mother participated in the pageant and won. That's how she met my dad" he added.

"My mum won the pageant the year before James's" Remus said thoughtfully "I guess that's basically how she met my dad as well"

"Its how all high society girls meet their husbands" Peter said. Lily looked over at Sora.

"You're a high society girl, Sora- why aren't you participating in the pageant?" she asked. Sora just snorted.

"My parents never really pushed me to try out for it- plus, I don't need to meet a high society husband" Sora answered. Lily just nodded her head thoughtfully.

"But…but I could never win the Merlin. I'm not high society- I'm not even close to it" Lily said.

"Don't worry, Lily, you have us to support you. All you need to do is get accepted to participate in the pageant and you're golden" James said.

"How do I get accepted?" Lily asked.

"Well, you will be judged by a panel on five things" James said "One in proper etiquette, one in music, one in public speaking, one in gracious hosting, and one in personal appearance. The panel will then pick the top 50 of the thousand candidates to participate in the pageant" James answered. Lily looked down at herself, her fading school robes and wild, curly hair.

"Why even bother?" she sighed. "I don't know anything about proper etiquette or music; I hate speaking in front of large crowds, I can't host parties to save my life; and as for personal appearance- look at me!" she cried, holding up a strand of wild, flaming hair.

"You can do it, Lily" James said, confidently.

"I'm just not pageant witch material. I don't know anything" Lily said disheartened.

"Which is why I found you a team of the bets tutors in the world" James said suddenly, causing everybody to look up at him.

"What?" Lily asked.

"You found a team already? But you only came up with the idea five minutes ago" Peter said, confused.

"Yeah, who is this team?" Remus asked.

"Why- it's us, of course!" James said. Everybody just stared at him.

"Us?" Sirius asked.

"Yeah, us. Padfoot and Regulus could train Lily on music; Sora could teach her proper well bred etiquette and gracious hosting; Moony and Wormtail could fine tune her public speaking; and I can hook her up with the best beauty saloon in all of Britain to help with her personal appearance" James said brightly "Who out there can help Lily better than us? All of us come from the most highest families in the society" he added.

"Well…I guess it could work" Remus said slowly.

"Yeah, I don't have a problem with tutoring Lily" Peter added.

"And we could help her a lot" Sora mussed.

"I'm not going to do it- I'm not part of your H6" Regulus said suddenly. James turned on him.

"Yeah- but do it to help Lily, to help me" he said. Regulus just gave out a mirthless laugh.

"Why in the world would I help you, Potter, when just an hour ago you dragged me across the whole school?" he asked. Sora turned to him.

"Regulus, please. I'm asking you as a friend. Lily needs your help. She needs to win the pageant" she said.

"Sora, I am grateful for your friendship- but I really don't see any gain for me from helping Lily." Regulus answered. James sighed.

"I'll give you a box of chocolate frogs every week" he said, Regulus narrowed his eyes.

"Three boxes" he said.

"Fine, whatever" James said irritably.

"Deal then" Regulus answered with a grin "but it has to be the caramel filled ones" he added.

"So it's set- we will get Lily ready for the Merlin Pageant!" Peter announced. Everybody nodded their heads.

"When is the pageant?" Lily asked.

"On Valentine's day" James answered "about a month and a half"

"Will I be ready by then?" she asked.

"You better be" James answered, grinning.

* * *

The teens all sat around for a few minutes and created up a schedule for Lily's tutoring. It was tough fitting in sessions between everybody's activities, but they finally drafted up a time table. After that was over everybody dispersed to go to their various outings, except for the two girls, who remained in Sirius and Sora's common room.

"Do you have anywhere to go?" Sora asked Lily. Lily just shook her head.

"Good. We need to have some girl time. It's been forever since we've sat and talked- just the two of us" Sora said. Lily nodded and leaned back in her chair, sighing.

"This whole Merlin thing is killing me and we haven't even started yet" Lily cried. Sora looked over at her friend.

"You seemed to be worried before this whole pageant thing came up. There's something else that's bothering you- what is it?" Sora asked.

_Maybe it could be the fact that I'm in love with your husband_ Lily though ruefully. But of course she could never say that out loud, not to Sora. But then again, she couldn't hide anything from the girl either. She knew her too well.

"I…I think I'm in love with two people" Lily said, causing Sora to gasp.

"It's Remus isn't it?" Sora asked. Lily looked up at her friend in shock.

"Remus?" Lily asked.

"Yeah, I've been suspecting so for quite some time now. You're always spending all that time with him. You get along better with him than you ever have with James" Sora said.

Lily just stared up at her friend in wonder.

"Yeah…yeah, it is Remus" she finally said. It wasn't true- Lily's feeling towards Remus were only friendly- but she couldn't tell Sora who she was really in love with.

"But what about James, do you not love him?" Sora asked. Lily just sighed.

"I love James- that's the problem. James is the sweetest, kindest person that I have ever met. He's so considerate when it comes to me and he might be a bit overprotective, but I think that's adorable" Lily said "but on the other hand, I have a huge crush on…Remus… even though I know for sure that he will never like me back. I try to get rid of my crush, but it won't go away" she added

"Well, it seems as though James is the better man for you" Sora said "but if you're not sure of that then I don't think you should lead him on"

"I'm not leading him on, Sora- I really do love him! But…I'm just confused right now" Lily said. Sora looked down at her friend sadly.

"Lily I know that you're confused- but James is fixing to propose to you- he's madly in love with you. You should see the way he looks at you some time- it's sweet enough to make a person's heart melt. If you aren't as serious about the relationship as he is, then don't pretend like you are. He's my friend too, and I don't want to see him get hurt" Sora said.

"And I don't want to see you get hurt either" she added "maybe you should take a break. Just don't date anybody for a few weeks- give yourself time to clear your head"

Lily pondered over that thought for a moment.

"You know what, that's a wonderful idea" Lily said. "I'll just take a little break from dating and clear up my confusion. Thanks Sora" she said, hugging her friend and running from the room, hurrying to tell James about the plan. He would be upset as hell at first, Lily knew it. But, in the end, it would be better for the both of them. Lily could get over her infatuation with Sirius and finally open her heart up completely to James. She just needed some time…

Lily rushed into her common room, only to find James standing there, pacing.

"James I have something to tell you" Lily cried out. James looked at her with an odd expression.

"Wait, I have something more important to ask you" James said. He was wearing an expression that Lily had never seen on him before and it frightened her.

"James, what is it?" she asked, suddenly feeling afraid. James walked up to her and took something out of his pocket.

"Lily…" he said hesitantly. Suddenly Lily placed the emotion on his face. He was nervous! For the first time in his life James was nervous.

"I know that we haven't discussed this yet- but it's pretty obvious- I just wanted to formally do this" James said.

"What are you talking about?" Lily asked him. James opened his hand. There, on his palm, was a beautiful diamond ring winking up at Lily.

"Lily, will you marry me?" James asked.

Lily just looked up at him in shock, she knew it would have happened eventually- but not so soon. Lily just stood there, a million emotions raging through her, confusion, love, defiance, it was all too much for her. Half of her wanted to scream yes, half of her wanted to run away. Her body was being pulled in a million different directions and it hurt like hell.

"I think I'm going to throw up" Lily mumbled, and the she did, all over the plush carpet.

**A/N: Ah, so another chapter finished. Next chapter- you find out whether or not Lily will accept James's proposal as well as well as see what happens when Marissa brings out her "secret weapon". As always, please review- they make my day!**


	20. Marissa makes a Deal

**A/N: Okay, so here is the next chapter. I got it to you fairly fast (Okay, well faster than what I normally do). I hope you enjoy it!**

**Chapter 20: Marissa makes a Deal**

James had envisioned many different possibilities of what would occur when he finally proposed to Lily. All of them had something to do with the girl beaming and glowing with happiness and love; and none of them had anything to do with her doubling over and retching all over the floor. Which was why James was so worried when his future bride-to-be did exactly that.

"Lily!" he cried as the girl became sick "Are you ill? Did you catch strep throat again? Do you need me to take you to the nurse?" he asked, feeling her forehead to see if it was warm.

Lily just brushed the boys hand away and lifted her head, shakily. She still felt awful, but she knew that her sudden illness wasn't caused by a virus.

"I'm not sick, James" she said lightly, which caused the boy to scoff.

"Don't jest, Lily, you just threw up all over the floor. Of course you're sick" he retorted.

"I threw up because I was…confused" Lily answered.

"That's ridiculous, no one throws up because their confused" James said.

"I do!" Lily said, haughtily.

"Well, why are you confused then? All I did was ask you to marry me" James asked, confused. It wasn't like it was a big deal or anything.

"James, how can you take marriage so lightly? How can you be so confident?" Lily cried, becoming angry at the confused look on the boy's face.

"I'm not taking marriage lightly, Lily, I…I just don't see why your making it seem like such a surprise that I proposed." James said, becoming even more confused.

"Why shouldn't I have acted surprised? Most girls are surprised when their boyfriends propose" Lily answered.

"But…it wasn't like this was some sort of new idea. We were going to get married- we both knew that" James said, trying to talk some sense into the boy. Lily just gave out a mirthless laugh.

"James- you were the only one who knew we were going to get married. Did you not even think to ask me what I thought about this whole thing?" she asked, her voice ringing with fury.

"But, Lily, why would I need to? We're in love- why wouldn't we get married? Who else is there out there better suited for you than I am?" James asked, trying not to sound conceded or smug- though he was coming off as both.

"James Potter- how do you know that I am completely as enamored with you as you seem to think I am? What if there is somebody out there that I like better?" Lily said, brining herself up to her full height and staring at the boy straight in the eye.

"You can't be in love with someone else!" James said, his tone final. That wasn't even a possibility…

"Well, I am" Lily said, fueled by anger. But as soon as she uttered the words, her eyes went big and she immediately clutched her mouth. Oh god, what did she just do…

Upon hearing Lily's words, the fire immediately left James and she stared at her with disbelief and so much pain that Lily's eyes started to tear up.

"James, I didn't mean to…"

"I'm glad you told me that" James said, cutting her off, his voice flat and dull.

"Listen, James, I didn't mean it, it just came out" lily said, desperately trying to fix the situation.

"Lily, if you really are in love with someone else- then…I'm not going to force you into marriage" James said "I love you, more than you will ever know. But loving you means that I put your happiness before mine; and if you are going to be happier with some other man, then I'll make sure that you two get together, no matter how much it will hurt me"

Lily stared up at James, wondering how somebody who was usually so conceited and arrogant could be so utterly sweet and selfless. It was moments such as these that made her want to stay by the boy's side forever. But she didn't know if even these moments made up for the endless headaches that he gave her.

"James…I don't want to be with anybody else" Lily said finally.

"But you just said that you're in love with somebody else" James said. Lily just shook her head.

"But I'll never be with him- I could never see myself being with him. I could see myself being with you, though" Lily said.

"I'll never bring you as much happiness as this other man" James answered sullenly.

"James- you have brought me so much happiness along with so much anguish. I love you and I hate you. I can't imagine living with you, but I can't imagine living without you either" Lily answered, expressing her confusion.

"Then what do you want to do?" James asked. Lily looked up at the boy for a good minute before she finally gave him an answer.

"I want time, James. I want time to think things over" she said.

"How much time?" James asked.

"Give me until the end of the Merlin pageant. That will be enough time for me to sort things out" she said quickly. James nodded his head slightly.

"So you'll tell me at the end of the pageant whether you love me or not" he said, trying to clarify everything. Lily shook her head.

"I do love you, James. I just need to see if I could spend the rest of my life with you" Lily answered. James still remained a bit skeptical.

"But how do I know for sure that you really do love me, and not this mystery man?" James asked. Lily just grinned at him.

"James, do you really think that I would subjugate myself to the tortures of pageant preparation if I really didn't love you?"

"I guess you do have a point there…"

* * *

And what a torture pageant preparations truly were. By the end of the week- Lily had been stuffed full of so much information that she felt like she was going to explode.

"Okay, let's do this once again, Evans. What is the difference between a violin and a viola?" Regulus asked, looking extremely bored, a music book in his head and an open box of chocolate cauldrons beside him.

"Uh…violin has five letters and viola has six?" Lily said, brushing the red hair out of her eyes and giving Regulus a sheepish look.

"You really are the daftest person I have ever tried to teach- which is saying a lot considering that I just tutored Archibald Crabbe and Vincent Goyle the other day" Regulus said, his tone more exasperated than angry.

"Oh, shut it, Reg. Lily's doing fine" Sirius said from beside the boy.

"No, I'm not! I am absolutely horrible at music; I can't remember any etiquette; and Remus and Peter just walked out on my public speaking lesson yesterday because I was so horrid!" Lily wailed, leaning back on her chair.

"I don't even know why I'm bothering with this- I can't ever compete with all those high society girls" she added, miserably. Maybe James was better off with one of those fancy, beautiful girls…

"Yeah, but you've got one thing that none of those girls has" Sirius said, causing Lily to look up with interest.

"Oh yeah, what" she asked.

"Personality" Sirius answered. Lily groaned and leaned back once more. In high society, looks and poise were all that mattered. Personality was looked down upon…

"Okay…maybe that wasn't the best point" Sirius said, shaking his head, wondering how they could make everything work out.

* * *

And because this was Hogwarts- everybody knew about Lily and the Merlin pageant in a matter of hours. The school was abuzz with gossip and rumors by the end of the week- each one becoming more and more fantastical.

"I heard that James hired the minister of magic to tutor Lily in public speaking"

"Oh yeah- well I heard that Sora is giving the head of the pageant his weight in galleons as a bribe to get Lily through"

"Nah, you all are wrong. The H6 has already rigged the pageant to make sure Lily wins"

"I don't know about you people- but I'm getting a bit tired of constantly hearing about this sainted Lily" Adrian said finally, as he walked down the hallway, surrounded by people twittering about the famous redhead.

"Aren't you in the least bit interested by this, Adrian?" Frank Longbottom asked the boy. Adrian just scoffed.

"Please, that mudblood has no chance of winning the Merlin Pageant" he said, causing Bellatrix Black (the girl of his choice that week) to snicker beside him.

"I think Lily can win" Frank said, hiding his disgust for the other boy. How could a Gryffindor be so evil?

"Don't be daft, Longbottom. Just because you're whole family is a bunch of muggle lovers doesn't mean that all pureblood families are. The Merlin Judges know better than to let that…girl win a respectable society pageant" Adrian said coolly.

"You took the words right out of my mouth, mate" Lucius Malfoy said as he wheeled up next to Fran and Adrian.

"My Narcissa is going to enter the pageant as well" Lucius added, nodding his head towards the slight blond headed girl hanging off his arm. "She'll beat Lily, hands down"

"No doubt about it" Adrian answered.

"I don't know why you're in Gryffindor, Adrian- you're a horrible person. Why aren't you in Slytherin?" Frank asked, shaking his head at the group of people beside him.

"Because it wasn't convenient" Adrian answered coolly, walking away from Frank in long, graceful strides, Bellatrix scampering behind him like a lost puppy dog.

* * *

And being in Gryffindor really was convenient for Adrian. This way he could inform his aunt whenever something major happened with James or the rest of the H6. This time, Marissa was having her daily walk through the gardens when Adrian's owl swooped down and dropped its letter in front of her. Marissa gracefully picked the letter up, opened it, and then scanned her glorious green eyes over it, a sick grin spreading on her face as the contents of the letter sunk in.

"Henry" she said, calling her butler, who was never more than a few steps behind her.

"Yes madam" the small man said, scuttling up to her.

"Get Thomas for me, won't you" Marissa said, dismissing Henry with a wave of her hand. The man scampered away and moments later, Thomas walked up to the lady in his slow, lumbering gait.

"You called for me, Madame" Thomas said, his voice low.

"Ah, yes, my nephew just gave me an interesting piece of news" Marissa said coolly, turning to the man. For a moment, Thomas felt his insides boil with nervousness, though his impassive façade didn't change at all. Did Regulus rat him out?

"Interesting, Madame?" he asked.

"Yes, apparently James's mudblood girlfriend had decided to take part of the Merlin pageant! That girl…in a pageant!" Marissa said, as though it was the most amusing thing in the world. Thomas tried to hide his relief.

"Very amusing" he said, his hard set mouth breaking out into a very, very slight grin.

"Well, we know that there is no way that she is going to win- but we need to make it one hundred percent sure. Just for safety reasons" Marissa said, sitting down on a bench near her.

"What do you suppose we do?" Thomas asked. Marissa just looked down at her gown for a few moments in concentration before looking up once again.

"We bring in a contestant of our very own" the lady said, grinning widely.

"Who should we bring in- there are a great selection of girls to choose from" Thomas said, thinking about who the fairest of the high society girls were.

"We bring in that very pretty Black girl" Marissa said.

"Narcissa?" Thomas asked.

'No, that girl is too plain. We'll bring in Bellatrix, her sister. Much more exotic looking- plus she's a perfect lady" Marissa said. Thomas thought about it for a moment.

"It could work- I'll arrange that for you" Thomas said finally.

"And get her the best group of people to train her. She must be perfect" Marissa said.

"Of course, Madame. All will be taken care of" Thomas said lightly.

Marissa nodded her head and dismissed the man, slowly getting up and walking to the large manor, another idea already forming in her mind.

She walked up the large flight of main stairs and into her bedroom suite, which was double the size of the largest muggle manor in all of England.

Marissa entered her dressing parlor, where her husband, Jacob, stood, fixing his tie in the expansive mirror that covered one side of the room.

"Hello, Jacob" Marissa said coolly, sitting down at her table, getting out all of her jewelry and laying it down in front of her. Jacob eyes his beautiful wife warily.

"Hello, Marissa. I thought you were due to go to Italy today" he said, feeling uncomfortable. When he had first married Marissa, she was such a naïve, joyful girl with huge jade eyes and a dazzlingly bright smile. Now, she was a prim and proper lady who was always so detached from everything. She was a great businesswoman, but the kindness that she had possessed when she was younger was now completely gone.

"I had a change of plans" the lady said, holding up a large necklace, dripping with diamonds and emeralds. She examined the piece for a moment before nodding and putting it on, her skillful fingers fastening it perfectly.

"Well, where are you going then?" Jacob asked. Marissa turned around and narrowed her eyes at him.

"Your insufferable curiosity is beginning to annoy me, Jacob" she said icily before turning around once again and facing her personal mirror "but if you must know I am going to Hogwarts to visit James" she added.

"You're going to visit out son? Why, is something wrong with him?" Jacob asked suddenly. James was his one and only child, and he was constantly worrying about the boy.

"Nothing is wrong with him. I just need to have a talk with him; about his future" Marissa said.

"During school? Can't this wait until summer?" Jacob asked.

"If it could wait- I wouldn't be going now, would I?" Marissa said, getting up and walking through the door "this conversation is boring me. Next time you want to talk make sure you have something important to say" she said, leaving.

Jacob looked at the retreating figure, shaking his head. When had she changed from a happy girl to an ice queen?

* * *

Professor Dumbledore was sitting in his office, writing on a long piece of parchment when Marissa Potter appeared from out of his fire. He didn't even look up from his work as the woman stood up, dusted herself off and cleared her throat loudly.

"Professor" Marissa said to the man, nodding her head.

"Misses Potter, what an…unconventional way for you to come for a visit" Dumbledore said, still not looking up. Marissa scowled.

"I came to see James" she said, her voice low and mystical, as it always was.

"So I figured. Your son is in quidditch practice right now. You can find him on the field" Dumbledore said.

"Well, aren't you going to send somebody to accompany me?" Marissa asked, raising a single eyebrow.

Finally Dumbledore looked up at the woman and smiled, his light blue eyes dancing.

"Why of course, Misses Potter. May I introduce you to our guide, Peeves. He will escort you to the fields. But be careful, he has a nasty temper" the old man said, smiling jovially.

Peeves swooped down from the ceiling and pushed Marissa out of the room, blowing raspberries so loud that nobody could hear the woman's shrieks of protest.

* * *

Lily was sitting in the stands of the quidditch pitch, watching the Gryffindor practice while working on her potions homework. She looked up to see Sora 'accidentally' charm a bludger to follow Sirius around; grinning as the confused boy kept swatting the ball away, only to have it fly back towards him.

"What is wrong with this bloody bludger?" Sirius cried out as it came back towards him for the hundredth time.

"Apparently it has a bit of a crush on you, Padfoot" James said, laughing. He had seen Sora jinx the ball as well.

"Yeah well you better get over here and help it get an un-crush" Sirius said as he raced through the field, the bludger flying right behind him.

"Fine, fine" James said, flying over to Sirius. He got his wand out, ready to take the jinx off of the ball when Lily cried up from the stands.

"Watch out, James, behind you!"

James turned around to see the other bludger, which had just been flying around, headed his direction. Sora saw the ball as well and swooped down to hit it out of the way. James trued to swerve to the right, but just ended up colliding with Sirius, who was still trying to get his bludger off his tail. The two teens tumbled in the air, crashing into Sora. All three fell from their brooms and to the ground (which was only five feet down); landing in a heap.

"Sora, you're elbow is in my face!"

"Sirius get you foot off my stomach!"

"Whose finger is poking my eye?"

"James Jacob Potter- what in the world are you doing?"

James, Sirius, and Sora immediately sat up, looking at the woman standing in front of them.

"Oh…my" Sirius breathed as he saw Marissa Potter in front of him, looking poised, perfect, and deadly angry.

Lily stood up in the stands as the lady approached the group. Lily had never seen such a woman before in her life. She looked as though she was about as old as her mum, but there was something about the lady that spoke of detached perfection. Her auburn hair fell gracefully around her face, her clothes were absolutely perfect, but her eyes, which were a magnificent shade of green, looked disconnected and aloof. And she looked dangerous, lethally dangerous.

"Oh, hello mother" James said, standing up. Lily gasped. This perfect, poised woman was James's mother. The girl felt her stomach sink.

"James, why were you rolling around the ground like some type of…commoner?" Marissa asked, pulling herself up to her full height.

"I am very sorry mother, I fell off my broomstick. It will not happen again" James said, bowing his head down.

"It better not. You are the only heir to the House of Potter- we expect you to keep up the family name." Marissa said, holding James's chin, pulling up his face, and examining it.

"You look filthy" she said finally.

"I was just playing quidditch, mother. I haven't had a chance to shower." James explained, his voice low and polite.

"Well you know how I feel about sports. Especially when you are playing with…this lot" Marissa said coolly, looking down at Sirius and Sora.

"Hello Mistress Potter" Sora said, getting up and bowing. Marissa just scoffed at her and turned around.

"I need to have a talk with you, James. About…." The lady's eyes swept to the stands, over Lily, who was sitting very still, trying not to look at Marissa.

"Oh, well, okay" James said, following his mother out of the pitch. Lily ran down to Sora and Sirius and James and his mother left.

"What is she going to talk about?" Lily asked. Both Sora and Sirius just shrugged.

"With Marissa, you never really know what will happen" Sirius said.

* * *

Marissa led James to an empty classroom and closed the door behind them, making sure that Peeves was nowhere in sight. James sat down on one of the desks and looked at her.

"Is there something wrong, mother?" James asked. Marissa looked at him coolly.

"I heard that you decided to sign up your mudblood girlfriend for the Merlin pageant" she said. James looked up at the woman, his eyes flashing with fury.

"Do not call Lily that name" he said, his tone biting. Marissa was taken aback for half a second at her son's anger.

"You will not talk to your mother like that, James" she said, her eyes narrowing. "Now tell me, do you think that this girl has any chance of winning?"

"I have full faith that Lily will win" James said. Marissa smiled lightly.

"Then are you willing to make a wager on it?" she asked. James hesitated for a moment. His mother was famous for her wagers- she had proposed many in the past and she had won every single one. But then again, this was Lily- and wherever the girl was concerned, James felt safe.

"I'll accept any wager you can name" James said confidently. Marissa smiled widely.

"Fine then" she said, walking up to her son "If Lily wins this pageant then I will accept her, no questions asked. You two can get married, live happily, whatever you want" she said.

"That sounds fair" James said.

"Yes, but if Lily doesn't win- then you have to do what I want you to do" she said. James looked at the woman.

"And what would that be?" he asked.

"You have to go to that business school in America" Marissa said. James groaned. His mother had been trying to get him to go to some sort of business school in America, even though he knew he would rather die than leave England.

"But…that would mean that I would be away from everybody for six years" he said. Marissa smiled.

"Yes, and during the summer and winters you will have to take a business job near the school to get experience" she added. James's eyes widened.

"You mean that I won't be able to come back to England at all for six years?" he asked. Marissa nodded her head. She knew that six years in America would wipe away any puppy love feelings James had for Lily. James stared numbly at the ground. His whole life now depended on Lily. If she won the pageant, he would live happily ever after. If she lost, he would be forced to leave his friends, his homeland and go to a foreign country- never to see everything he loved for six years. James looked up and at his mother, his eyes set and firm.

"I have full confidence in Lily. She will win and we will get together" he said. Marissa scoffed and turned around.

"You keep telling yourself that" she said, walking out of the room, leaving James sitting alone in the empty room.

**A/N: Okay, so in the next chapter you get to see how Lily does in the pageant and see if James has to leave for six years or not. The end of the story is comin up soon (Ak- I'm getting a bit sad thinking about that); but I think I might do a sequel- something in Harry's time. We'll see though. As always- please review. Thanks!**


	21. The Pageant

**A/N: Okay, so this chapter took a bit longer for me to put up- but it's a really long one- so hopefully it will keep you busy for a while. Enjoy!**

**Chapter Twenty One: The Pageant**

Lily was petrified on the day of the pageant. By some stroke of good luck she had managed to get past the preliminary tests (which was no small feat); but now, with Merlin looming over her like some type of terrible beast, she wished that she had failed those tests miserably.

"Lighten up, Lils, you'll do fine" Sora said, helping the girl slip into her dress.

"I can't lighten up! It's too nerve-racking" Lily groaned, fingering the fine silk material of her gown. James had hired a designer to make it especially for her. It was gorgeous, but just looking at it made her want to throw up in nervousness.

"Lily, we've been training you non stop for the past two months. You know everything there is to know!" Sora said, fixing Lily's hair.

"I know- but there is just so much at stake here. I don't know why James had to go and make that wager with his mum" Lily grumbled, sinking down into a chair next to the window.

The H6 had all come to London two days ago to get ready for the pageant. Lily had been going through the last minute, high intensive training sessions as well as spending four hours a day in a very fancy magical spa, getting primped, exfoliated, purged, rejuvenated, and everything else she needed to do to look the part of a perfect pageant princess.

Lily looked at herself in the mirror and sighed. She looked good, better than she ever had looked before, in fact- but she felt fake. The smooth, un-curly red hair that hung silkily around her face seemed unfamiliar to her, and her face, made up to perfection- seemed as though it belonged to somebody else.

"I don't think I'm ready" Lily said, sighing.

"You are the most prepared of all the girls here" Sora said, packing up all of their things and putting them away. "Don't worry, Lily. We won't let you loose"

Lily was just about to ask what exactly Sora meant by that when there was a knock on the door.

"Are you two ready yet?" James's voice rang from outside the small door. The four boys had been sharing the room next to Lily and Sora's.

"One minute!" Lily cried back, getting up and taking one last look in the mirror. Everything was perfect…at least on the outside. On the inside, Lily was a train wreck.

"Come on, Sora, we better get going before the boys barge into here" she said, picking up the miniscule evening purse that Peter had bought her and walking towards the door. Sora nodded her head and walked behind her.

Lily opened the door to see James, Peter, Sirius, and Remus all standing, looking bored but very cute indeed in their formal evening suits.

"Well aren't you four an eye-full" Lily said, grinning at them.

"Same as you" James answered "you…you look like a beauty queen" he added.

"Ah, don't get her head too swelled up" Sora said, smiling, locking the door behind them.

"We better get going- registration starts soon" Peter said.

"Wait- I have something for us" James said, holding out the sleek, black bag that had been resting at his side.

"What is in that?" Remus asked. James just grinned and opened the bag, taking out a beautiful red cloak.

"Oh my, those aren't what I think they are" Sora breathed, looking at them.

"They're the official H6 cloaks- the same ones that we wore in our third year when we stood in front of the whole school and told them about the forming of our group" James said happily.

"Third year- that was so long ago" Lily said, smiling fondly at those more…peaceful times.

"Wow- I thought that you had thrown these away" Sirius said, looking through the back, taking out five more identical cloaks.

"Nah- I had just sort of…misplaced them" James said sheepishly "I found them the other day when I was going through all of my old stuff"

"You want us to wear them…now?" Remus asked, looking up at James.

"Sure, why not- we need to make a dramatic entrance" James said. The rest of the group just shrugged and put on their capes, nostalgic about that far off time when their biggest troubles had been each other.

* * *

The lobby of the Merlin building was crowded with pageant hopefuls, all in their finest dresses and made up to perfection. They were the top fifty teen witches in the entire world, and they were all desperate to win- each for a different reason; most of those reasons having something to do with marrying a rich husband. Reporters from all the major magical papers stood ready, waiting for something exciting and dramatic to happen. And they wouldn't be disappointed.

The main door of the building burst open very loudly. All eyes turned towards the entrance, where six teens, all wearing matching red capes stood. They walked into the building in long, self assured strides as murmurs started to break out among the crowd.

"Who are those people?"

"What? Have you never heard of the H6?"

"Oh my, those are them- aren't they- is one of them entering the pageant?"

"I think it's Lily- the redheaded one"

"But isn't she a muggle born?"

"Who cares; she's one of the H6"

From the corner of the lobby, Bellatrix Black stood and smiled evilly as the group walked past her.

"They are always so over dramatic, aren't they Thomas?" she said to the man beside her.

"Yes, quite so, Mistress Black" Thomas said, eyeing the group. They might be overdramatic, but they sure knew how to make an entrance.

"I think that entrance went rather well" James commented as they reached the registration, leaving a lobby full of gaggling contestants and reporters in their wake.

"A bit too well" Lily said "now they expect me to be amazing"

"Don't worry, Lily, with the amount of time we spent training you- you will be amazing" Peter said. Lily sighed.

"Oh my- look over there!" Sora cried, pointing to the corner of the lobby. The rest of the group followed Sora's finger and saw a figure walking over to them.

"Bellatrix?" Sirius asked in confusion as his cousin walked up to them.

"Hello, Sirius" Bellatrix said, stopping in front of the group. Lily gasped. The girl looked…amazing. Her black hair had been perfectly coiffed and she looked elegant and poised. Lily felt like a drab wallflower next to her.

"Surprised to see me?" Bellatrix asked the group.

"Well, yes. You never seemed like a pageant witch before" Remus said to the girl. Bellatrix just laughed.

"I wasn't. That was, of course, until a certain benefactor paid me a king's ransom to enter and win" she replied.

"Somebody paid you to enter?" James asked, confused.

"Well yes, in fact, your own mum paid me to enter" Bellatrix said, smiling smugly.

"My mother!" James said, stunned. "But, why?"

"Your mum wanted to make sure that Lily lost, so she hired me to win the pageant- which I will, no doubt" Bellatrix answered. James's eyes flashed with rage. It was just like his mother to play dirty like this.

"Sorry, Bella, but Lily is going to beat you, hand's down" Sirius said. Bellatrix just laughed.

"Sirius, there is no way a mudblood is going to beat a Black" she said before turning around and walking away, towards the auditorium.

"I can't believe my mother did that!" James cried, leaning against the registration table.

"Please, Prongs, you couldn't have possibly expected your mum to play fair" Remus said. James sighed.

"James…I don't think I can beat her" Lily said, still awestruck over the whole situation.

"Lily- you have to beat her, not only to win, but also to prove her outdated style of thinking is wrong" James said.

"Like your mum doesn't have the same style of thinking" Lily said, sighing.

"Of course she does- she's insane!" James said "has been ever since she met that man"

"You dad?" Lily asked, confused on who 'that man' was.

"Nah- my father's okay. It's that crazy man, Voldemort. Mum met him at some sort of meeting about nine years back and ever since then she has gotten into all that fanatical pureblood stuff" James said, sighing.

"Never heard of him" Remus said, thoughtfully.

"I have" Sirius said ruefully "mum and dad are great friends with him. And you know what that means" he added.

"But James, your mum wouldn't be friends with a dark wizard, would she" Lily said. James just shrugged.

"Who knows what my mother will do. I really don't care anymore" he said before turning to the registration table. "But enough about her, we need to get you set up to go" he added.

"I don't feel so good about this" Lily sighed.

* * *

Lily sat backstage, waiting for the pageant to start- trying not to let her nerves take the best of her. Around her girls were sitting, staring, and gossiping. They had all seen her entrance and, somehow, they had all heard her story. Lily had a feeling that Bellatrix was to blame for that.

"Why did I let James talk me into a dramatic entrance" she said to herself, leaning back in her chair.

Suddenly a very tiny man in a suit walked briskly into the room.

"Ladies, we are about to begin- please line up and wait for your name to be called" he said in a tight, formal voice, before turning on his heels and walking out of the room. All of the girls got up and lined up, waiting.

Lily saw as the girls were called up one by one; each one of them gracefully walking through the curtain that led to the stage. And with each name that was called, Lily felt her stomach dropping a bit more. Finally it was her turn.

"Lily Evans" a loud, booming voice called. Lily took a deep breath, put on her most dazzling smile, and walked through the curtain.

The stage was massive, as was the crowd. Thousands and Thousands of people, and a good share of various magical creatures, watched the girl as she walked across the stage. There was quite a bit of polite, formal clapping; which sounded more like leaves rustling than actual clapping; and quite a bit of murmurs coming from the crowd; but Lily didn't hear any of it. She was just concentrating about getting to the other side of the stage without making a fool of herself.

Lily reached the other side and felt a great sense of relief. It definitely wasn't the hardest part of the pageant, but Lily felt a bit better. She had nailed the poised, graceful walk that Sora had been trying to teach her nonstop for the past two months. One by one, the rest of the girls also walked past the stage. (The only person that messed up was some Cambodian girl who accidentally tripped halfway through and then ran off the stage, bawling). Finally all of the girls (minus that one girl) were standing, smiles plastered to their faces, waiting for the first round of the pageant to begin.

The thing about the Merlin Pageant was that it wasn't run like the usual pageant; where girls would just dress up in different clothes and walk across the stage. The Merlin tests not only the girl's physical appearance, but her knowledge of al things that were high society. None of the girls knew exactly what the rounds were going to be about, but they knew they were going to be challenging.

The small man walked to the middle of the stage and addressed the girls and the audience in a large voice.

"Honorable guests, esteemed contestants; welcome to the hundredth annual Merlin Pageant" he said "We are very humbled to have all of you here. This year, our theme will be International Etiquette. We will test our contestants over etiquette not only from their own country- but from many different countries across the globe. Our panel of judges each come from twelve different countries and will be judging the girls on the level of perfection that they perform their tasks."

Lily felt a bit better upon hearing the theme. The H6 had spent a lot of time prepping her on various cultures and Sora taught her all there was to know about Japanese etiquette. Plus, looking around, she saw the blank, slightly frightened faces of the girls around her. It seemed as though most of them hadn't studied about etiquette from other countries.

"The first round will be…music" the small man said "each contestant has to play an instrument for us. They may pick the instrument- but it must be one that is not common to their respective country. We have a large selection of instruments in the back from which they may choose from. The contestants will have forty minutes to prepare".

And with that he dismissed the girls, who all walked backstage gracefully. Once they were off the stage though, all the girls dashed wildly to the room where all the instruments were. When they were inside the room, everybody just stood there, staring at the large collection of instruments, not quite knowing what to do.

"I don't know how to play any foreign instrument!" One girl cried. Many of the other girls nodded their heads. It was a hard challenge.

Lily, too, didn't know any type of foreign instrument. She knew how to play the piano, Sirius had taught her basic violin, and Regulus had taught her basic viola; but all of those instruments were common to England.

"What am I going to do?" Lily cried, sinking to the floor. She eyed Bellatrix who was smiling widely, holding some type of flute in her hands. Apparently the girl had been prepared for the challenge.

"Here, try this" a lady said, handing her something that looked like a wooden xylophone. Lily looked up in surprise. The woman had a good natured face, a large smile, a cloud of red hair, and was wearing the black robes that all the people who worked at the pageant wore.

"Don't be afraid, Mistress Evans, I'm on your side" the lady said. Her voice was kind and warm, but Lily still felt a bit on guard.

"Thank you, but…who are you?" Lily asked taking the instrument. The lady smiled brightly.

"My name is Molly Weasley. I'm a pageant coordinator" she said. Lily looked up at her in wonder.

"But, why are you on my side. Did James hire you?" she asked. Molly laughed good naturedly.

"No, no, my dear. I just heard that nasty girl Bellatrix telling a group of girls about your story, and, well, I felt as though I had to help you win" Molly said. Lily beamed up at the woman.

"Thank you, Molly" she said, tears shining in her eyes.

"No need to thank me, dear, it's the least I can do to help true love" the lady said. "Now, about this instrument. It's called a marimba, and it makes a lovely sound. I learned to play it when I was working with the ministry in Africa."

For the next forty minutes, Molly taught Lily the basics of the marimba as well as showed her how to play a simple, yet very pretty song. It wasn't a particularly hard instrument to play; all it took was a good memory; and Lily had that. By the end of the time, Lily was on good spirits about the challenge- which was more than what could be said about the other contestants.

* * *

Up in the audience the rest of the H6 were sitting, extremely nervous.

"Regulus and I never taught her how to play any foreign instruments" Sirius said.

"Lily is smart, she'll find something" James answered.

"James- she might be smart- but we're talking about learning to play an instrument, in forty minutes!" Remus said.

"I'm sure Lily found someone in there to help her" Peter whispered.

"Yeah- she'll find out something" Sora said.

Suddenly the small man stepped out onto the stage and began to call the names of each girl, one at a time.

"Aing, Maima" A tiny Asian girl stepped out onto the stage and played a violin.

"Arlee, Janette" A French girl came out and did a song on some type of drum.

"Berer, Jakimba" An African girl played an unusual tune on a guitar.

"Black, Bellatrix"

The H6 all turned and watched the pretty girl cross the stage with a flute in her hand.

"That's a Japanese flute" Sora whispered to the boys "it's very difficult to play; but if it's played properly, it makes an extremely pretty sound" she added.

"Let's hope she doesn't know how to play it properly" Sirius said.

Unfortunately, Bellatrix did know how to play it, and rather well at that. Even James, who hated the girl with a passion, had to admit that the music that she made with the flute was beautiful.

"Lily better be amazing" Remus said after Bellatrix flounced off the stage cockily.

"She will be" James said, his confidence not slipping an inch. The H6 just sat back and watched the next few girls come onto stage. Some of them were horrible, some of them were passable, but none of them were very good.

"Evans, Lily" the small man finally announced. The crowd once again erupted into murmurs and the H6 sat at the edge of their seats as Lily walked onto the stage, a large smile on her face, and an odd instrument in her hands.

"What is that?" Peter asked, looking at the instrument.

"It's a marimba" Sirius answered "from Africa"

"Does she know how to play that?" James asked.

"Well, we'll find out soon" Sora said, holding her breath as Lily sat down and started to play.

To the H6's surprise, Lily actually looked like she knew what she was doing. The song that she played on the marimba was simple yet very pretty and in a way, she was almost as good as Bellatrix.

"How…how did she learn how to play that?" James asked as Lily left the stage.

"Well, the marimba isn't very hard to learn; but somebody had to have taught her" Sirius answered. Everybody looked at each other in confusion.

"James, did you hire somebody to help Lily without telling us?" Remus asked. James shook his head violently.

"No way" he answered.

"Oh well" Peter said, shrugging "at least we can feel better, Lily did extremely well that round" he said.

"Yeah, the only competition for her now is Bellatrix" Sora said. James's eyes darkened.

"If my idiotic mother had never hired that stupid girl to compete, Lily would have had this competition, hands down" he said angrily. Sora was just about to say something when the small man once again came on the stage.

"Thank you ladies. The first round of the competition is complete. The judges will now pick the top eight girls to go on to the second round" he said. The girls all came on stage and the H6 watched with bated breath as the verdict was called.

"Justine Harding from America"

"Opri Kalumbajar from Namibia"

"Bellatrix Black from England"

"Maria Sandoval from Spain"

"Stella Rechvicov from Russia"

"Esperanza Roseo from Columbia"

"Aisha Kaldari from Egypt"

"Lily Evans from England"

Lily broke out into a huge grin and the H6 broke out into such a loud applause that many of the people sitting around them looked up in wonder at the teens.

"I knew she would do it" James said, grinning from ear to ear, shooting Lily a thumbs up. Lily just shook her head and smiled at the boy's enthusiasm.

"The second round" the small man said, bringing everybody back to reality "will be even more difficult than the first" Lily paled. The first round had been extremely hard- in fact- if it hadn't been for Molly she wouldn't have been able to get through it.

"For a girl to be a good hostess, she must cater to the needs of her guest, no matter what nation they are from. And the first step of catering is communication. For this round- each girl will need to give a thirty second speech on the benefits of learning international etiquette"

Lily sighed with relief. Peter and Remus had trained her countless hours in public speaking. Giving such a short speech was no problem for her now. She looked up at her friends in the audience and winked. This wouldn't be a hard round after all.

"But wait" the little man said "while giving the speech the contestant will have to speak in something other than her national language or English, for all contestants are required to know English."

Lily felt all of the happiness leave her all at once. She looked back up at the crowd to her friends only to find them whispering ferociously to themselves. She thought wildly at any foreign language that she knew. All she knew was a few French words that she remembered from when she had taken a class during her elementary years in muggle school; but she defiantly didn't know enough to create a thirty minute speech.

"The contestants will have another forty minutes to write and memorize their speeches. You may go now girls"

The girls all left the stage, some of them with smiles on their faces, some of them with looks of horror.

"What's Lily going to do now? I know for sure that she doesn't know any other language; except a bit of French" Sora whispered.

"Enough French to write a thirty second speech?" James asked. Sora shook her head.

"And Bellatrix used to live in Spain. She's fluent in Spanish" Sirius said.

"So what do we do?" Peter asked "I don't know who taught her how to play an instrument; but learning a language will be ten times harder for her to do"

"It's impossible- she can't learn another language" Sirius said, sighing, leaning back in his seat.

"You can't be giving up this soon, Padfoot" James said to Sirius angrily.

"What can we do then, Prongs? We can't teach her another language" Sirius said. James just smiled slyly and pulled out a little box from his cloak.

"What's that?" Remus asked, eyeing the box warily.

"Something I picked up" James said cattily.

"Something you picked up where?" Peter asked.

"At…somewhere" James said, suddenly embarrassed.

"James, where?" Sora asked, her eyes narrowing.

"At…at a muggle store" James answered finally.

"What? A Potter went to a muggle store. What would your mother say?" Sirius asked in mock surprise. James promptly hit him on the head.

"But James, will…whatever they are, work here? I know that muggle things don't work at Hogwarts" Peter said.

"Yeah, they will- I already tested them" James said.

"Well, what are they" Sirius asked. James opened the box and brought out two little buds and a tiny microphone.

"This is top muggle technology, it just came out. I had to pay a fortune for this" he said proudly. Everybody looked at them in confusion.

"What are they, Prongs?" Peter asked. Instead of answering him, James just took one of the buds and put them in Peter's ear. Then James just smiled and walked out of the auditorium.

"What in the bloody hell was that all about?" Peter asked, just as confused as everybody else.

Suddenly he heard James's voice, as clear as if he was standing right next to him.

"So, Wormtail, what do you think?" he said. Peter's eyes grew wide.

"Prongs where are you?" he asked.

"I'm outside. This device lets you hear me as long as I stay in 7 kilometers of the building" he said. Peter's eyes lit up.

"Brilliant!" he said, smiling widely.

James walked back inside the auditorium and him and Peter explained how the buds worked.

"Okay, so that's neat and all, but how are we going to help Lily?" Sora asked.

"We'll give lily one of these buds and one of us will go outside and whisper to Lily everything she needs to say. She won't sound perfect, but it'll work" James said.

"But who here knows a foreign language?" Remus asked.

"Sora knows one" Sirius offered. Sora nodded suddenly. She had grown up her whole life in Japan so she was quite fluent in Japanese.

"There we go, Sora, go give this to Lily" James said, handing the girl a bud.

"How will Sora get it to Lily?" Peter asked. Sora just smiled.

"Peter, I might not have the best grades in most of my classes, but when it comes to transfiguration- I'm an old pro" Sora said, turning on her heels and walking out of the room.

* * *

Lily was sitting down backstage, head in her hands, not knowing what to do. She had already spoken with Molly and the lady had said that she didn't know any foreign languages.

"Hello there, young girl"

Lily looked up and saw an old woman wearing black robes standing in front of her. The woman was about her height and had the most fabulous snow whit hair that came all the way down to her knees.

"Um…hello Madame" Lily said, getting up, trying to be polite, though a million questions were racing through her mind.

"I have a present for you, dear" the lady said. Lily looked up at the woman, confused, as she pressed something into her hand.

Lily looked into her hand and saw a tiny bud in it.

"What is this for?" she asked. The old woman's wrinkled face broke out into a smile.

"You put it in your ear, love. The rest will fall into place" the old woman said. Lily looked up at her.

"Who is this from?" Lily asked. The old woman looked her straight in the eye.

"Let's just say it's from those who care" she said, winking. And amid the woman's wrinkles and lines, Lily recognized the sparkling blue eyes.

"Sor…"

"Sorceress Adams" she said quickly, cutting Lily off "that's my name"

Lily suddenly understood. Sora couldn't reveal her true identity. Another member of the H6 coming backstage would be very suspicious.

"Just put it in your ear- we'll take care of the rest" Sora whispered to Lily before winking at her once again and walking away.

"Thank you…Sorceress Adams" Lily cried out. Sora just waved her hand at her and walked out of the room.

Lily put the bud in her ear and waited. The forty minutes went by in a flash and before she knew it the small man was calling her name to come up onto the stage.

"I hope you know what you're doing Sora" Lily said, walking out onto the stage, a bright smile plastered to her face. She didn't quite know how the small bud Sora gave her was supposed to help her in any way, but she trusted her friends. They hadn't let her down before.

Lily walked up to the stage and stood at the microphone, wondering what was going to happen. Suddenly she heard Sora's voice in her ear.

"Lily- I am going to tell you what to say. Repeat everything I say exactly" the voice said. Lily tried not to look as shocked as she felt. Sora started to talk very slowly and clearly in Japanese and Lily repeated what the girl said into the mike.

It wasn't a perfect speech, but it wasn't a bad one either. Lily spoke the Japanese with a terrible British accent and she tripped over a couple of words; but the grammar was perfect and the speech itself was strong. Plus Lily would be getting extra points because Japanese was such a hard language. From up in the stands, the H6 smiled at each other.

"That was actually a pretty good speech" Remus said once Lily had finished and walked off the stage.

"Like you understood what it meant" Peter said, rolling his eyes.

"I didn't- but I mean, she spoke clearly and her poise was good. We taught her well" Remus answered. James nodded his head.

"Lily was loads better compared to these other girls" he said. And it was true- almost none of the other girls knew how to speak a foreign language and most of them just came up and gave a painfully short speech in some butchered language; usually French. In fact the only girl that was superb was Bellatrix, who addressed the audience in beautiful, fluent Spanish.

The group sat in the stands, waiting nervously, as the judges tallied up the scores and handed the small man an envelope. The man took it and walked across the stage.

"The scores for the second round are in. I will now announce the two girls who will compete in the third and final round" he said, opening the envelope. Up in the stands, the H6 waited, fingers crossed; and behind stage, Lily sat- anxious and shaking.

The small man looked at the contents in the envelope and raised his eyebrows.

"For the first time in Merlin history, both of out finalists are from the same country. Mistress Bellatrix Black from England and Mistress Lily Evans from England" he said.

From behind the stage, Lily broke out into a huge smile and leaned back against her chair in relief. She was going to the finals. She might just have a chance at winning this thing; and the thought of that filled her up to the brim with happiness.

Suddenly the door to the backstage flew open and the H6 all tumbled in, wearing huge smiles.

"You did it, Lily!" Sora cried, running over to the girl. The boys followed behind her.

"I know, I still can't believe it" Lily said to the group.

"Ah- we all knew that you would make it to the finals" Peter said.

"Yeah- you practically have this thing in the bag" Remus said. Lily shook her head.

"I still have to beat Bellatrix- and that won't be easy" Lily said.

"Please, Lily, don't worry about my lovely cousin. You can beat her, no problem" Sirius said. Lily wished that she could believe the boy, but deep down she knew that Bellatrix would be a hard one to beat.

"The third round doesn't start for another three hours- we have a lunch break right now" Lily said.

"Do you guys want to go out somewhere?" Peter asked. The group nodded, and they decided on the Chinese place right across the street.

"We'll go get a table" Sirius said, motioning to Peter, Remus, Sora, and himself. He knew that James would probably want some alone time to talk things over with Lily right now, and the rest of the group understood that right away. They quickly left, leaving James and Lily in the now deserted room.

Lily knew that James would be waiting to hear her decision on whether or not she would accept his proposal. It was the day of the Merlin pageant, after all, and she had told him that she would have made a decision by then.

"James" she started to say, but was stopped by the boy.

"Listen, Lily. You don't need to tell me your decision right away" he said. "wait until after the pageant when my mum will approve of you and there won't be anything standing in our way" he said.

"But James, what if I don't win?" she asked. James just smiled at her.

"If you don't win, then you don't. It doesn't matter- I'll still be just as proud of you" he said "I agreed to my mum's wager because if I hadn't she would have never accepted you. If winning over her approval means having to spend six years in America then I am willing to do it" he said.

"But James…" Lily started

"Lily, listen- if the only way that I can get to be with you is to go to America, I would do it in a heartbeat. I love you, and that is all that matters to me right now" James said, cutting her off "but we won't discuss this until after the pageant. Right now, let's just go and enjoy lunch with our friends" he said, Lily nodded her head, smiling. Her eyes were filling up with tears- tears of admiration and love. She was amazed by how much James had matured over the years that she had known him. Gone was the cruel, brutal thirteen year old boy she had despised. In his place stood a loving, attentive person who could be a bit arrogant and annoying at times but absolutely uplifting at others.

"Come on" James said, holding out his hand. Lily took it and the both of them walked out of the building and out to lunch.

* * *

The third round of the pageant started sooner than Lily would have liked. Lunch had been amazing- it was just like old times- the H6 all hanging out together, goofing off, joking around, having a wonderful time. Lily wondered if the six of them would ever have another lunch like this again- where they were all so carefree and jovial.

But all traces of happiness from lunch were gone from the girl as she stood, shaking and nervous on the stage next to the poised and perfect Bellatrix. The little man walked up onto the stage.

"Welcome, fair audience to the third and final round of the Merlin Pageant. So far we have put our contestants through two very challenging rounds- and these two lovely ladies have stood out to our panel of judges. This next round will not be judged by the panel, however" he said. Lily looked at the man, perplexed. Who would judge the next round, then?

"The next round will be judged by our special guests" the small man said, sweeping aside. From behind the stage a group of ten young children, all looking to be around five years old, came out. Lily smiled as she saw the children and Bellatrix grimaced.

"In this round, our two finalists will be in charge of these ten children for forty minutes. They will have to watch them, entertain them, and make sure that they stay out of trouble. At the end, the children will tell us who they believe the best caretaker was- and that girl will win the pageant" the small man said.

Lily felt a bit better and a bit worse at the same time. At least she would have a fair chance of winning this pageant- but, on the other hand, she never really was good with little children. But she had a feeling Bellatrix wasn't much of a caregiver either.

"Your forty minutes starts now" the man said and immediately Bellatrix walked up to the children, a bright smile on her face.

"Hello children, my name is Auntie Bellatrix. I have a feeling that we are going to become fast friends" she said kindly. All the children smiled up at her. Lily made her way over to the children as well.

"My name is Miss Lily" she said brightly "now who wants to go and play a game?" she asked.

"I do!" all the little children cried, following Lily off the stage. Lily threw a smug grin at Bellatrix and led the children backstage. Bellatrix scowled deeply and followed.

The forty minutes seemed to last for forever. Lily tried her hardest to be optimistic and caring and bright the whole time- but taking care of ten hyperactive children was exhausting. Bellatrix, surprisingly, was an excellent caregiver as well. She was one of the coldest hearted people in the world, but when she was farced to do so, she could be quite the lovely person.

* * *

At the end of the time Lily and Bellatrix, both half dead, walked back out on stage, the children scampering behind them. The small man walked up to them.

"The last round of the Merlin pageant is officially over" he said jovially. "Now I shall ask the children who they thought the best caregiver was and the pageant winner will be announced" he said, before turning towards the kids.

"Okay now, my dears- have you picked the winner?" he asked. The children nodded.

"Who is it?" the man asked. Lily held her breath and shut her eyes. This was the moment that decided everything.

"We like both of them the same!" one of the kids shouted, and the rest of them nodded. Lily opened her eyes and opened her mouth in shock. A tie! What would happen now?

The small man, too, seemed to be a bit confused. He walked over to the panel of judges and the immediately huddled together, discussing. Lily looked up at her friends in the crowd and they exchanged confused looks. No one knew what was going to happen.

After about ten minutes, the small man walked back to the two girls.

"In the case of a tie- the panel and I have decided to award first place to the girl who has the most points after all three rounds" he said "but the money prize will be split in two". Lily nodded her head, not caring about the money prize. All that mattered was the title.

"So, the girl who scored the higher score is…"

Lily held her breath once again, not daring to breathe.

Up in the audience, the H6 all bent their heads- willing the man to call out Lily's name.

"Mistress Bellatrix Black of England!"

Bellatrix beamed, pumping her fist in the air.

Lily felt her stomach plummet, not only because she didn't win, but also because that meant that James would have to leave for six years.

Bellatrix ran off stage as soon as the whole crowning ceremony was over, but lily just trudged backstage, her heart heavy, tears stinging in her eyes. She opened the door to the backstage room to find her friends there.

"Congratulations, Lily!" Peter said as she walked in.

"On what?" Lily asked.

"You tied with Bellatrix" Sora said.

"Yeah, well I ended up getting runner up" Lily said halfheartedly.

"That doesn't matter- you gave a valiant effort, and we're proud of you" James said.

"But it wasn't enough- I lost" Lily said.

"Lily, please, you did great" Sirius interjected. Everybody nodded their heads.

"Come on, let's go have a celebration dinner" James said, rounding up everybody and taking them out.

* * *

Dinner was a pleasant affair, though Lily couldn't help but feel miserable.

"What's the matter, Lily, you don't look like out lovely little pageant girl" James said to her.

"You have to leave" Lily said to him. James stalled for a moment but then smiled at her.

"It's only for six years- it's not like I'm going to be gone forever, right" he said.

"James- six years- do you know how long that is?" Lily cried. James just held up his hand to shush her.

"Lily, I don't want you to feel like your to blame for this. I don't mind going to America. I'll come back here, and it's not like I'm going to be a different person when I do come back" he said.

Everybody at the table nodded at this, though they too felt a bit depressed. The H6 without James there just wouldn't feel right. He was arrogant, but they loved him all the same. They would miss him terribly.

Lily was so tired that she fell asleep at the dinner table, which was probably best, in James's opinion. He hadn't told Lily yet, but part of his mother's deal was that if Lily lost the pageant he would head off for America the very next day.

"Sora, take her your room please" James said, looking at the sleeping girl.

"Don't you want to tell her goodbye?" Sora asked. James shook his head.

"I don't think I'll be able to handle that" James said.

"But, Prongs- you aren't going to see her for six years" Peter said.

"I know- saying goodbye would just make it sound so final" James answered.

"I'm going to miss that warped ideology of yours" Remus said to the boy.

"I'm going to miss you period" Sirius said. James smiled at the group

"I'm going to miss you lot as well" he said.

"Are you sure you have to go?" Peter asked. James nodded.

"Can't we go with you?" Sora asked. Everybody in the group stood for a minute, thinking about that possibility.

"No- don't. All of your futures lie here in England- don't ruin them to come keep me company" James said.

"Prongs- you have to promise to all of us a letter everyday" Remus said.

"two letters" Peter corrected, his eyes starting to well up. James felt himself starting to get a little teary.

"I will- I promise" he said.

'Take care of yourself, Prongs" Sirius said, patting his best mate's shoulders, his voice sounding choked.

"You too- don't get into too much trouble without me" James said, tearfully. It was an emotional leaving- but it was one that he had to make. The group stood there for a moment, all of them trying not to cry.

"Ah- what's the point of holding back?" Sora asked, letting the tears stream down her face. Soon, everybody was sitting there, crying, in the middle of the restaurant. The waitress rushed up to them to assist them, but James just waved her away. It was the last time in quite a while where he would be here, with his friends, having dinner all together, crying, laughing, doing anything. He would miss them all like hell.

* * *

Lily woke up the next morning feeling completely refreshed. She looked around the room and saw Sora sleeping in the bed next to her, still dressed in her robes from the day before. Lily sat there for a few moments, letting the events wash over her when she remembered one crucial fact. She had never told James her decision about the proposal. Lily jumped onto Sora's bed and shook her awake.

"What is it, Lils?" Sora asked, groggily.

"Sora, where is James?" Lily asked.

"Gone" Sora answered.

"What?" Lily asked suddenly. Sora sat up in her bed.

"James left this morning" Sora said. Lily looked at her, shocked.

"But…he didn't say goodbye" Lily said. Sora shrugged.

"He said it would be too hard" she said.

"That…fool!" Lily cried "He won't be seeing me for another six years and he wants to leave without telling me!" she felt like she was going to cry.

"He's probably still at the train station. You'll be able to catch him if you hurry" Sora said. Lily immediately got up and rushed out of the room, not bothering to comb her hair or wash up. She needed to see James.

* * *

James and his mum were standing on the train platform, ready to board, when a small girl with wild red hair ran up to them.

"James!" she cried. James turned around and saw the very person who had been plaguing his thoughts.

"Lily!" he cried, running up to her. Marissa looked at the girl in distaste.

"Lily, what are you doing here?" James asked. Lily didn't answer, but instead, punched the boy square in the chest, causing him to wince in pain.

"What in the world…"

"James Potter- how could you dare leave me without telling me goodbye?" she demanded.

"Lily, it would have been too hard" James answered.

"Are you some type of coward now? I won't see you in six years and you decide to leave without even letting me talk to you?" she demanded.

"It would have been for the better, Lily" he said. The girl scoffed at him.

"You are so boorish" she said.

"Well you're so stubborn!" he cried.

"You are an arrogant jerk" she said, bringing herself up to her full height

"Well you're an introverted bookworm" James said, towering over her still

"I hate you" Lily cried

"I hate you more" answered James

"Let's get married"

"Yeah, well I…what?"

James stared at the girl in shock. Had she just said what he thought she did?

"I said let's get married" Lily said to him.

"Are you proposing to me?" James asked. Lily nodded her head pertly.

"You didn't give me a chance to accept your proposal, so I thought that I would just go ahead and propose instead." She said. James stared at her for a moment and them threw his head back and laughed.

"You are quite something" he said.

"So is that a yes?" Lily asked.

"It's a yes" James answered before swooping down and kissing her.

"But our marriage will have to wait until I get back from America" he said. Lily nodded her head.

"I'm willing to wait" she said. James smiled at her.

"I'll write to you everyday" he said.

"You better or I'll find some other man to propose to" Lily answered. James hugged the little girl.

Marissa looked on at the scene, a bit disgusted and a bit… she didn't even know. She had never seen her son as happy as he was at that moment and she felt her cold heart melt just a bit.

"James, we are going to miss our train" she said coolly. James kissed Lily once again and gathered up his bags.

"Goodbye then, future Mrs. Potter!" he cried out to Lily, who just shook her head and grinned. Marissa walked up to Lily, taking in the girl's rumpled clothes, tangled hair, and glowing eyes.

"So Mistress Evans, you came here looking like some type of pauper girl, yelled at my son, and then proposed to him?" she asked.

"Yes Madame" Lily answered.

"Have you no shame, girl?" Marissa asked.

"Apparently not" Lily answered, grinning up at her. Marissa was quite taken aback by the girl. She had never seen such firs and such, well, insolence, from a girl since…herself, if truth be told.

"I'll see you in six years then, Mistress Evans" Marissa said, primly nodding at her and boarding the train.

Lily stood on the platform waving at the train until she couldn't see it anymore. She stood there, the wind tugging at her hair and, for the first time since the pageant results had been read, she felt as though everything was going to turn out all right after, all.

**A/N: Okay, so how was that? It know it was a bit long- but I hoped that it was interesting. The next chapter is going to take place six years in the furutre when James comes back to England- so the H6 members will be all grown up and working at their own jobs and such and Voldemort will be coming into power soon- so you know what that means for our favorite couple. But- that's in the future. For now, I hope that you guys enjoyed the chapter. As always, please review- you make my day!**


	22. The Reunion

A/N: Okay, I would like to say that I am sorry that I have not had an update in about forever. It's just that life hit me real hard and all my teachers decided to go on an end of school laernign binge, so I havn't had much time to write. I promise I will get the next chapter up as fast as possible. The story is almost done- so there will only be a few more chapters left. Enjoy this one!

**The Reunion**

On the train platform a pretty, young lady stood nervously, looking out at the empty tracks. The wind tugged her long crimson hair across her face and her almond shaped emerald eyes were wide and anxious. Today was the day she had been anticipating for the past six years, and she was an absolute mess; which was quite a big thing indeed, because the whole wizarding community knew that Lily Evans was the model of calm sophistication. Or, at least, that was what she had become ever since she had graduated from Hogwarts.

"Lily Evans, what are you doing here so bloody early?"

Lily spun around to see Sora walking towards her, her large blue eyes sparkling with mirth and exasperation. The girl had not changed one bit over the past six years and Lily was glad for it, since most everything else had changed so much.

"I'm not that early" Lily said, trying to defend herself "James's train comes in at two and right now it's…"

"Ten thirty" Sora finished for her, raising a single eyebrow. Lily sighed and slumped down on a nearby bench.

"I'm just anxious" Lily said miserably "I mean look at me- I look like a mess!"

Sora looked down at her best friend and smiled. Lily's hair was loose and fell down her back in a waterfall of curls and her robes were a bit faded- but in no way would anybody say that she looked like a mess.

"Lily, you look as lovely as ever" Sora said, sitting down right next to the girl. Lily looked over at her with narrowed eyes.

"How could you possibly say that? My hair is unkempt and my clothes are disheveled!" she cried, tugging at a lock of her wild hair. Sora just shook her head grinning. Lily had changed so much ever since they had graduated. While they were still in Hogwarts, she never cared about how she looked or how she held herself- and now, that she was one of the most famous wizards in the magical community, Lily had started to care greatly about how she presented herself. But, personality wise, she was still the same sweet, and a bit naïve, Lily that Sora had always known.

"You look exactly the way you did when James left six years ago" Sora said, which picked Lily's spirits up a bit. But there was still one problem nagging her.

"Sora- what are you doing here?" Lily asked the girl beside her. It wasn't that Lily didn't appreciate Sora being there; it was just that the girl still had a knack for hatching some crazy plans.

"Oh nothing. I just wanted to make sure you didn't worry yourself to death" Sora said, though she didn't sound very convincing. Lilly looked at her with her eyebrows raised.

"Are you sure that this isn't one of you and Sirius's famous plans?" Lily asked. Sora just grinned wickedly. Ah yes, her and Sirius's plans were quite famous across the community. Over the past few years the two had managed to bring Peter and his now wife Jenny back together after they had gone through a nasty fight; convinced the minister of magic himself to let them and Sora start a new department; and rode a Hungarian Horntail through the quidditch stadium during the World Cup (long story behind that one).

"Listen, Sora, you know that I love you and Sirius, but if you mess today up I swear I will murder you both" Lily whispered to her friend furiously.

"Ah- don't worry yourself, Lily dear. I promise that we won't ruin you day" Sora said. "By the way, what dress size are you?" she asked casually.

"Why would you need to know that?" Lily asked.

"No reason" Sora answered absentmindedly, pulling a piece of parchment and quill out of her purse and scribbling furiously.

Lily just shook her head- not even wanting to know what was going on.

"Ah- there you two are, I knew you would be here!"

Both Lily and Sora turned around to see Peter, Remus, and Sirius all walking up to them. Lily smiled at all of them.

"Glad you could make it Remus" she said as the group approached them. Remus had been teaching in a university in Cairo for the past year.

"Do you really think that I would miss James's homecoming?" he asked. He had lost is sickly, pale parlor and his hair had been bleached by the sun. All in all, Remus was looking better than he ever had.

"And I see your on babysitting duties" Sora said, looking over at Peter, who had his one year old son, Jamison, in his arms. Peter grinned at them sheepishly.

"Jenny had to run some errands" he explained "she said she'd meet us up here in two hours."

Sirius sat down on the bench next to Lily and ruffled her hair, much to her dismay.

"Glad to see you're holding up, Lils" he said, grinning wickedly.

"I would be much better if I wasn't so worried about you and Sora planning something behind my back" Lily said. Sirius looked up at his wife with a shocked expression on his face.

"Now Lily why would you ever think that we would do anything?" Sirius asked.

"Maybe because you always do something" Lily retorted.

"Ah, just like old times" Remus said, grinning to Peter. All of the sudden Jamison started to cry and Peter hushed the child up.

"Well, almost like old times" Remus corrected.

The group all waited on the train platform, growing more and more anxious as the clock neared two. Jenny met up with the group at about one, bringing them all lunch and relieving Peter of his babysitting duties. The group had been so busy with their own lives that they had never really gotten a chance to all meet together and talk, and they were all glad for the opportunity.

Finally, right at the stroke of two, a long, jet black train pulled up to the platform. The group fell silent as the train squeaked to a halt, their breaths bated. They all stared at the train until finally a person came out of it, a pile of suitcases floating lazily behind him, his long black hair falling messily over his familiar hazel eyes.

"James" Lily gasped, her eyes growing wide. Sora and Sirius shared a quick look and Sirius nodded curtly at his wife.

James stepped out onto the platform and looked around. He seemed a bit different from when he had left six years ago, older and more mature. He had grown out his hair and lost a bit of weight, so that he looked taller than before. He was also wearing a serious expression that looked foreign on his face. But as soon as his eyes fell upon the H6, he broke out into a grin that made his face come back alive. His hazel eyes sparkled in their mischievous way and he looked like his old self once again. He hurried over to the group, beaming.

"You guys don't know how glad I am to see you" he said as he finally made his way to his friends. They all beamed up at him as well.

"You don't know how glad we are to have you back as well" Sirius said. James smiled up at his friend, but he really was concentrating on Lily, who was still seated on the bench, looking up at him with wide eyes. He noted that she had changed since he had last seen her. Her hair was still as wild, but it was longer now, almost reaching her waist, and she carried herself in a more formal, regal way.

Lily stared up at James, not believing that it was him. She had envisioned his homecoming countless amounts of time, and now that it had actually come, she was overwhelmed with emotions. She just stood up and walked over to him.

"James…" she whispered.

"Lily" he answered back, not trusting himself to say anything more.

Lily just started up at him and then, with no warning, pulled him into a tight hug. James was taken off guard for a few seconds but then laughed and hugged the girl back.

"I missed you" Lily told him.

"That would be an understatement" Sirius whispered to Sora, who grinned back.

"You have everything set in place right?" Sora whispered back to Sirius, who nodded solemnly.

"Should we start to move out, the platform is getting crowded" Remus asked, being the most sensible person in the group, as usual. Slowly, the H6 started to move out of the platform.

They had almost reached the parking lot when a group of people approached them.

"Hello!" they said brightly, their voices thick with heavy German accents.

"Hello" Sora said back to them, confused, "can we help you?"

"We just came to England from Germany today" one of the people said "so we are not familiar with the people here"

"Oh- do you need help finding someone?" Lily asked. The people shook their heads.

"We were just wondering if you three were Lily Evans, Sora Black, and Sirius Black" they said. "Because you look exactly like them"

"That would be us" Sirius said, causing the group to gasp.

"Really! We read so many articles about you back in Germany!" one of the woman squealed. The group talked to them for a good while before Remus pointed out that they should be going. They quickly walked away from the platform and into the parking lot.

"What the bloody hell was that all about?" James asked as they started to walk towards Sirius's car (which he used whenever they were going to be traveling through any muggle part of town).

"You mean the Germans?" Lily asked.

"Of course I mean the Germans. Since when have you become so famous?" James asked.

"Ever since Sirius, Sora and I started a new department in the ministry" Lily answered.

"Started a new department? That hasn't been done since…" James started

"About a hundred years" Lily answered for him. James looked down at her, impressed.

"What department is it?" he asked

"The Department of Mysteries" Sora answered for him, grinning widely.

"I read something about that" James murmured.

"Nothing major, I hope. It's top secret stuff" Sirius said, putting all of James's suitcases in the trunk.

"Top secret as in spies?" James asked excitedly, sounding like an eager little boy.

"That among other things" Lily said, grinning as well. Lily loved her job, the excitement and mystique of it. Now if only the press would like her job a little less. Ever since the Department had opened everybody had been trying to discover what it was all about.

"Ah- everything has changed so much" James said, getting into the car "you three started your own department, Wormtail got married and has a kid, and Moony is off teaching in Egypt! Is there anything else that I should know about?"

Everybody shared a look and nodded at Lily.

"James…your mum" she started to say. James looked up at her.

"What happened to her?" he asked.

"She ran off" Lily said. James's eyes darkened.

"Ran off as in ran off with another man?" James asked.

"She ran off with Voldemort. She became one of his radical supporters" Jenny explained.

"I knew that she would do something like that- she's insane!" James whispered to himself furiously. His mother was always wrecking everything.

"Don't worry about her- your mum might be a bit evil- but she is a smart woman- she won't get into trouble" Peter said reassuringly.

"It's not my mum I'm worried about" James said darkly. Peter was right- his mother was an extremely smart woman. With her by Voldemort's side, James was worried for the magical community.

"So how was America?" Jenny asked James as Sirius pulled the car out of the parking lot.

"It was quite different" James answered "the weather was milder and I found the people to be a bit more friendly" he added.

"Meet any friendly girls?" Lily asked, eyebrows raised. James grinned.

"Quite a few, in fact" he answered, smiling "but I've found that I don't much like friendly girls" he added. Lily smiled back.

"Ah- so you only like the ones that declare war on you in front of large crowds" she said, grinning, leaning her head on James's shoulder.

"You don't know how glad I am that I'm back" he whispered to Lily.

"I think I have some sort of an idea" she answered.

"Um, Sirius- if I remembered- your apartment was the other way" Peter said suddenly, looking out the window.

"Oh…well it is, isn't it" Sirius said absentmindedly. Lily shot up.

"Where are we going?" she demanded.

"Somewhere" Sora answered, sharing a secret look with her husband.

"Sora…Sirius….I smell one of your famous plans" Jenny said, her voice mildly scolding. She was a bit more mature that the rest of the bunch- but she too always fell for the charm of Sirius and Sora's plans.

"You promised me that you wouldn't do anything to ruin this day!!" Lily cried.

"We aren't going to ruin anything, Lily" Sora said.

"We're just here to help" Sirius added in. Lily gave both of them withering looks.

"What is going on here?' James asked looking around at everybody, confused.

"Ask them" Peter said, pointing to Sora and Sirius.

"You all are so impatient!" Sora said, smiling widely.

Sirius turned the corner and pulled up in front of a huge, old fashioned church with a large crowd in front of it.

"What is going on here?" Lily asked. She turned to her friends only to see all of them smiling to themselves.

"You all are in on something that I don't know aren't you?" she asked.

"We are pretty fine actors if I do say so" Peter said, smiling widely. Lily turned towards James.

"Are you in on this as well?" she asked. James looked at her, confused.

"I just got here" he answered "I'm pretty much as clueless as you are"

"Come on, you two- we have a surprise for you!" Sora said, jumping out of the car and opening up the back door. Everybody tumbled out of the car as Sirius took out a few large packages from the trunk.

"Again- what is going on here?" Lily asked, looking at the crowd of people. She suddenly recognized the people nearest to them.

"Mum…dad?" she asked, gaping. Her mother and father rushed up to her and put her in a big hug.

"Congratulations, my dear" her mum said, beaming. She was wearing a new dress and her father had on his best tuxedo.

"Mum, what in the world is going on? Why are you and dad dressed up so fancy?" Lily asked.

"Oh my, Sora, did you not tell her?" Mrs. Evans said, looking at the girl. Sora smiled back at the woman sheepishly.

"I guess I never really got around to it" she answered, causing Mrs. Evans to laugh.

"Ah- you're just like always, my girl" she said, shaking her head. "I'm rather amused at how everybody here knows its Lily's wedding except for her" she said.

"WEDDING?" Lily and James cried at the same time.

"It's my wedding?" Lily gasped.

"Who is she marrying?" James demanded

"The last time I checked she was engaged to you" Sirius said to his best friend.

"But…us…married…right now?" James sputtered.

"Sirius is the king of spontaneous weddings, is he not?" Remus asked.

"But we can't get married- I don't have a dress!" Lily cried.

"And I don't have a suit" James added. Sirius patted the bags he was holding.

"Oh yes you do. We all went out and chose clothes for you!" Sirius said.

"And we also got rings" Peter said

"And we invited everybody who ever knew either of you" Jenny added.

Lily and James looked up at each other.

"We're going to get married" James said, his voice shot with awe.

"We're going to get married!" Lily cried, a smile creeping up on her face.

And married they were. It was a large ceremony- quite the opposite of the one that Sirius and Sora had many years back. There was a grand procession and the reception went on until late in the night. It was over the top and dreadfully fancy- and Lily and James loved every second of it.

After the reception was done, everybody dispersed on their own ways. James took Lily's hand and smiled at her.

"I guess a whole new chapter of our lives is beginning right now" he said. Lily smiled back up at him.

"I guess it is…" she answered.

"At least now we'll never have to worry about the future" James said. Lily looked up at him.

"Why not?" she asked, confused.

"Because whatever happens to us, at least we'll have each other to fall back on; and that's all we need" James answered. Lily beamed up at him. He was right after all- they had each other and they always would.

A/N: So okay, here is the chapter that most of you have prob. been waiting forever for me to write. The story is almost at an end now- there will only be a few more chapters. Next chapter the group has baby drama and Peter starts to turn over to the dark side. Everything will start making sense very soon- so stick around, okay?


	23. Fear and Choices

**A/N: Okay, so here is the next chapter. I know I havn't been updating as much as I should- but I've got a summer job and it's been keeping me quite busy. I'll try my best to update sooner for the next chapter. **

Life had become quite banal since James had come back- everything seemed to be going on auto-pilot; everyday seemed to be going the same. Lily, Sora, and Sirius went to work in the Department of Mysteries every day; James was busy heading up the Potter industries; Peter was climbing his way up the auror ladder, and Peter had gone back to Egypt to teach. It seemed as though everybody had fallen in a rut.

But for Peter, the rut was starting to become more interesting, and not in any good ways. He a father as well as a professional- and neither one of his jobs was very easy. He loved his wife and son very much- but sometimes they just wore him out. But still no matter how much Jenny nagged him nor how many temper tantrums little Jamison threw- Peter would like nothing better in the world than to spend all of his time with the both of them.

Unfortunately, that was not to happen because someone had to put food on the table and Jenny had quit her job once their son was born. It wasn't that Peter hated being an auror, or correction, it didn't mean that peter had always hated being an auror. When he first began his job, he loved it. The excitement, the mystique, it had all called out to him. Peter was actually surprised that he had made it. He had never been a terrific student nor possessed any great talents, so the join the elite rank of the aurors was a power that seemed almost surreal to him.

But of course, when he had first started out on the job, there really had been nothing to worry about. His day mostly consisted of chasing after a few petty dark wizards who had small little crimes- nothing dangerous, nothing life threatening. But in the past year and a half, things changed quickly. A new wizard, Voldemort started to rise from the shadows. Even in the beginning, Peter knew that Voldemort was not a wizard to take lightly, but he could never have guessed how powerful or how evil the man would grow to be.

In what seemed like a couple of months Voldemort had a large, very dangerous legion of followers that frightened the whole community, especially the aurors whose job it was to hunt them down. Peter had never been an exceptionally brave man and now, in the face of evil he was scared- not for himself, but for his family.

Of course, he never mentioned his troubles or fears with anybody- especially not Jenny. She already worried herself sick over him and he didn't want to scare her anymore. But always in the back of his mind he wondered what would happen to his family if he died- how could they support themselves? Jamison was only two years old and Jenny had become a very frail person ever since the boy was born; she became sick often and was quite weak most of the time. Both of them needed him and he knew that he would have to be there for them.

And it was because of that reason that Peter had been even more frightened when James came to visit him.

The first sign that Peter had that something was wrong was the uneasy expression on James's face. James had always been, for as long as Peter had known him, the most confident person on the planet. Nothing ever fazed James Potter- but now it was evident that something had.

"Prongs, what's wrong?" Peter asked as he led his friend into the main room. James fell down on one of the sofas and slouched down, looking crestfallen.

"I need help, Peter" James finally said- which raised another flag in Peter's mind. James had always called him Wormtail.

"I'll help you, whatever you need" Peter answered right away, feeling the familiar taste of fear rising up his throat. "What happened?"

"Lily…" James started, then stopped again.

"Lilly what? Is she okay?" Peter asked, worried.

"Lilly's pregnant" James finally spat out. Peter looked at him in amazement and then almost laughed.

"Prongs, is that was this is all about? You're afraid to become a father? It's nothing to worry about!" Peter said happily, but was silenced by the look on James's face.

"It's not becoming a father that I'm worried about, Peter. I am overjoyed at the thought of becoming a father. It's just…our child is going to be born in a dangerous world right now. You know what's out there" James said.

Peter looked at his old friend and understood where he was coming from completely.

"This is what I've been going through ever since Jamison was born" Peter answered. "I always am afraid for them, afraid that they'll get hurt because of me"

James nodded his head and then sunk back into the chair.

"I know, but you have it better than we will. Both Lily and I are on Voldemort's hit list" James said, sighing. Peter nodded his head. The Potter industries had been, for the past two years, the largest distributor of Dark Arts Defense materials; plus on top of that, Lily had been one of the three founding members of the Department of Mysteries- which Voldemort thought of as a huge threat to himself and his followers.

"I want to protect my child" James said flatly.

"Well of course you do, mate" Peter said "and I'll try my best to do whatever is possible to help you"

But on the inside Peter was torn. Now he not only had to protect his own family, but James's as well. James was one of the best friends that Peter had, and he would die for the man, but his first priority would always be for his family.

Suddenly Sora and Sirius burst through Peter's door.

"Hey there Prongs, we've been looking for you" Sirius said, coming over to James and Peter.

"What do you need?" James asked.

"Dumbledore wrote back to me; he said that you shouldn't go through with this" he said. James scowled deeply.

"I don't care what Dumbledore has to say, I'm going to go through with it" James said resolutely.

"James…you know that he knows much more than we do." Sora said, going up to her friend.

"I know- but he doesn't know us, Sora- he doesn't know the H6" James answered. Sirius snorted.

"Of course he knows us, James- he's one of the only people who does!" Sirius said.

"Well, then I guess I have to ignore him on this regards then" James said.

"What in the world are you guys talking about?" Peter asked, looking around. "What did you go to Dumbledore for?"

"Listen, Peter- I'm going to ask you to do something for me" James said, looking directly at his friend. Peter felt the fear start to rise again in him.

"What is it, James?" he asked.

"I need you to be my secret keeper" James said.

"James, don't do this- Dumbledore said he would do it" Sirius pleaded "it's the only safe way to go about this!"

"Do you not trust Peter?" James demanded, turning towards Sirius, who was taken aback.

"No of course not- I trust Peter" Sirius said, shocked. "But, you know, Peter has a family too- I don't want to endanger them" he added. Peter could almost hug the man out of happiness. Finally, someone was thinking of his family as well.

"Listen, I know that Dumbledore meant well offering himself to be our secret keeper, but…he's not one of us" James said. Both Sirius and Peter nodded their heads slightly. They understood where James was coming from. Dumbledore would never betray the Potters, but he wasn't a member of the H6- it wasn't the same.

"I'll do it then, James" Peter said shakily.

"No, no- it's fine Peter, we'll do it" Sora said looking right at James.

"Sora you have a family to worry about as well" Peter said. A year before, Sora had given birth to twins- Howl and Revile; they were beautiful babies and had become quick friends with Peter's son.

"I know- but…it feels right if we do it" Sirius said "plus- you're an auror, you are in more danger than Sora and I are in" Sirius said. Peter snorted.

"Yeah right, you guys founded the department of mysteries- you are about on the same level on Voldemort's hit list" Peter said.

"Peter- we don't want you to go through this" Sora said, leaning down in front of the man.

"And I don't want you to go through it either" Peter answered, though on the inside he was screaming to tell Sora that he did indeed want her and Sirius to become James's secret keeper; that he wanted to keep his family away from any of this mess; that he wanted to go in an isolated little bubble and pretend that he had never had any of this conversation with James.

"You are a true friend, Wormtail" James said, looking at Peter with appreciation shining in his eyes.

"You would do the same for me, Prongs" Peter answered faintly. James nodded his head solidly.

"Of course I would" he said "why don't you and Jenny go into hiding as well?" James said "I could be your secret keeper and your family would be safe".

Peter smiled ruefully.

"I can't, James- it comes with the auror job- we have to list where we live" he answered. Peter looked up at Sirius and Sora.

"What about you two? Are you going to go into hiding as well?" Peter asked.

"Already did, mate. Dumbledore's our secret keeper. We can't let Howl and Revile be unprotected" Sirius said.

Peter sighed internally. It seemed as though everybody had their family protected, everybody except for him.

"Well, okay then James- if you've made your decision, I guess we have to accept it" Sora said to him.

"Good luck, both of you. If you guys need anything- just let us know" Sirius said, and with that him and Sora left.

As they walked outside, Sirius sighed.

"For some reason, I don't feel good about this" he said. Sora nodded her head.

"I know what you mean. It's not that I don't trust Peter, it's just that…something feels wrong about this" she said. "I don't see why he just wouldn't go to Dumbledore."

"I know, but he was set on asking Peter- and he's one of the H6, he would never, ever do anything to harm James" Sirius said.

"Yeah- but he has his own family now, we shouldn't have burdened him with this" Sora said.

"But we have a family now too, Sor- we can't forget them" Sirius said.

"Of course I didn't forget the twins, it's just that you know we would do anything, anything, to protect the kids…and you know Peter feels the same about Jamison" Sora said, and it dawned on Sirius what his wife's point was.

Peter would do anything to protect his family…did that include betraying James?

Peter sat in his main room, feeling small and terribly afraid. His family was in danger- he knew it; and now he had to keep James's family safe as well. He didn't understand how he could do it all. Didn't James know he wasn't a strong man, he wasn't a brave man? It wasn't that he didn't want to help James- he just wasn't sure he could.

"Could anything else go wrong today?" Peter groaned to himself.

Just then Jenny walked into the room carrying Jamison. She had just been to the doctor's office to get checkups for her and the boy.

"Hey Jen" Peter said, smiling at his wife and taking Jamison from her. The boy giggled in Peter's arms and tried to grab his nose. Peter couldn't help but give out a small chuckle. His wife and son had only been in the room for a few seconds and already his mood was lifted.

"Peter, honey, guess what?" Jenny said, her eyes lit with excitement.

"What?" Peter asked, smiling at her.

"I'm pregnant!" she beamed. Peter just stared at her.

"You're kidding, right?" he asked.

"No- of course I'm not, silly." Jenny said. "Isn't this wonderful!"

"No…no, Jen this isn't wonderful" Peter said, falling back down on the sofa, letting Jamison down on the floor.

Jenny looked at her husband, surprised and slightly hurt.

"What do you mean it isn't wonderful, Peter? I thought you liked being a father? I thought you would be overjoyed to find out we were having another child. The doctor said it would be a girl- you always wanted a daughter" Jenny said, going and sitting right next to Peter.

Peter groaned, a daughter, he was going to bring a daughter into this messed up, dangerous world. Was there anything worse than this?

Peter sat down and told Jenny all about James's visit and about the fact that he was worried that having another child right now would be too dangerous.

"Then what do you want me to do Peter? I'm already pregnant- I can't make this baby magically disappear, and I would never want to" Jenny said once he had explained everything.

"I know, I just want you and the baby to be safe." Peter said "Why don't you go stay with your parents in Italy until the baby is born- you and Jamison could go, it'll be like a vacation. Plus the warm air will be better for your health- this cold English air can't be doing you any good" Peter said. Jenny just shook her head.

"I am not going to go off and hide somewhere while you're here" she said "you're my husband- I promised to be with you in the good times and the bad. If you are going to be here, then so am I" she said.

"Jenny- you don't know how worried I am for you and Jamison" Peter said "I can't take any risks- please go stay with your parents; it'll give me some peace of mind" he said.

"No Peter- I am going to stay here, I am not going to run away like some coward. We'll get through this together. We have love and that's all we need" Jenny said, smiling at her husband.

"Yeah, of course" Peter said, but on the inside he knew it wasn't that simple. He knew that somewhere down the line he would have to choose between protecting James and protecting his family…and the choice was not a hard one to make.


End file.
